A Trade Policy for the 1960s

THE savant who first observed that politics is art of said much less than seems to meet eye. The ex ante and ex post concepts of the possible are dis concertingly different. One might better say that politics is art of enlarging possible. And one could well add that an in dispensable step in process is to have a view of goals be yond for which one is reaching. Our exploration of a trade policy for 1960s, therefore, will not proceed from premise that a democratic government is captive of parochial interests it represents; on that as sumption, we are slated for dinosaur's fate. Instead, our general frame of reference is this: What trade policy does decade of 1960s demand for survival and growth? And what could a determined President hope to achieve, at outside, if he exploited every possibility in his position of leadership? In past decade or two, a deep-seated change has occurred in traditionally protectionist views of more highly devel oped countries of world. During this period, it has been pos sible for twoscore members of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to cut deep into their import barriers. The Organization for European Economic Cooperation managed to implement an unprecedented Code of Trade Liberalization. A European Coal and Steel Community has been achieved and a European Economic Community and European Free Trade Area have followed. Each of these programs constituted a minor miracle of a sort, patently impossible before it actually occurred. The fact that miracle none less occurred can be ascribed to various forces. One of these forces?one which can easily be underemphasized? has been persistent advocacy by most professional economists in advanced countries for reduction of trade barriers and broadening of markets. The wartime emergencies and post war problems precipitated economists into posts of key impor tance, not only in United States but in many other advanced countries as well. In these posts, influenced by fresh professional analyses, economists-turned-administrators have supported various programs of trade liberalization

Economics · International economics · International trade · Political science · Global trade and economics