| How did the processes and structures of tariff making change after the 73rd Congress delegated that authority to the President in 1934? Why does the office of the Chief Executive prefer trade liberalism? How is the President able to sell multilateralism to a protectionist Congress?; To answer those fundamental questions, I investigated the first tariff legislation after World War II--the wool bill of 1947. The 80th Congress which acted upon it, had a Republican majority, the first after fifteen years; and the outcome of the bill was critical to success at the Geneva Trade Conference, which formulated the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade.; My purpose was to examine the nature of coalitions and cleavages, both in Congress and at the Geneva Conference, with regard to political parties, interest groups, agencies or committees, as well as other countries. I relied on declassified documents from the Geneva Conference; records of congressional voting, which were tabulated to show party and sectional interests, as well as the nature of membership in committees; and on interviews with group representatives and agency officials.; I found four domestic cleavages: between (a) farm and foreign trade policies; (b) the executive and legislative branches; (c) the two houses of Congress; and (d) producers and manufacturers. In the first two, there was a clear-cut winner--foreign trade policy and the Executive branch. While the third cleavage was not settled, the Senate cautiously approved free trade and the House was overtly protectionist. The fourth cleavage was resolved by compensating producers. Globally, the United States obtained multilateral trade, but through a variety of concessions. Each cleavage and concession involved revitalizing old institutions or creating new ones, under the management of the Executive branch.; Since many structures were changed to liberalize global trade, one implication is that most post-war demands for tariffs have been settled in the same costly way as with the wool bill of 1947: by lowering tariffs and compensating uncompetitive industries from domestic taxes. |
