FOREIGN ECONOMIC AND COvMERCIAL POLICY


of the free countries and offer to their people the hope for economic
progress on which that strength greatly depends. The Gordon Gray
report rightly emphasizes the critical importance of our taking the
-offensive in the economic and social field if our total foreign policy
is to succeed.
  It is in this framework, and with this sense of urgency, that I believe
we must face the legislative problems that will confront us in carrying
forward our commercial policy program in the 82nd Congress.
  In order to keep the trade program going, we need from Congress
-essentially two things:
  1. Authority to continue the process of reducing tariffs and trade
barriers and eliminating discriminations.
  2. Authority to participate with other countries in establishing an
international forum for the discussion and settlement of trade prob-
lems and disputes.
  'The first would be substantially provided by the renewal, in some
form, of the provisions of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, and
by the passage of the Customs Simplification Act. Recommendations
with respect to the form in which the renewal of the Trade Agreements
Act should be sought, including the extent and duration of the au-
thority to make tariff concessions, will be submitted to you after con-
sultation with the other interested agencies of the Government and
with selected members of Congress.
  The second essential element-an international trade forum-
would have been provided by the Charter for an International Trade
Organization.
  It is my judgment that the ITO is no longer a practical possibility.
Reintroduction of the ITO Charter in the next Congress would mean
,either rejection of the Charter outright ,or an indefinite delay in
getting it established. Either of these results would be damaging to
,our foreign policy.
  The need for a 'trade organization, however, is a matter of urgency.
The international administration of the trade-agreements program
will bog down unless we can set up a permanent international body,
with an established secretariat, to handle the many disputes and
problems which arise in the trade field. As you know, the principal
trade agreement which we have concluded under the Trade Agree-
ments Act is the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Thirty-
three governments are a:t present parties to the General Agreement,
and after conclusion of the negotiations now going on at Torquay,
England, the participating governments will number labout forty.
Yet, as we have made clear to the Congress, the General Agreement is
in no legal sense an organization. It has no Executive Board, which


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