United Nations. The bilateral programs of the United States should be pressed vigorously. INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL The United States remains committed to the objective of freedom of travel throughout the world. Encouragement given to travel abroad is extremely important, both for its cultural and social importance in the free world and for its economic benefits. Travel abroad by Americans provides an important source of dollars for many countries. The executive branch shall continue to look for ways of facilitating international travel and shall continue to cooperate with private travel agencies. One legislative action that would be beneficial in this field is the increase of the present duty-free allowances for tourists from $500 to $1,000 exercisable every 6 months. I recommend the passage of such legislation.' TRADE FAIRS International trade fairs have been of major importance to foreign countries for many years, and most of the trading nations have strengthened the promotional aspects of their industrial displays in many fairs with a central exhibit designed to emphasize the industrial progress and achievement of the nation. Soviet and satellite exhibits, for example, have been costly, well planned, and housed in expensive structures designed to convey the impression that the U.S.S.R. is producing on a large scale for peace and is creating a paradise for workers. The United States, which has a larger volume of international trade than any other nation, until recently has been conspicuous by its absence at these trade fairs. American visitors and participants have pointed out the failure of their Government to tell adequately the story of our free enterprise system and to provide effective international trade promotion cooperation. As a result, I have undertaken an international trade fair program under the direction of the Department of Commerce. Since the inauguration of this program in August, participation has been authorized in 11 fairs to be held before June 30. Sixteen additional fairs are being considered for exhibition purposes in the latter part of the year. The first fair in which the United States presented a central exhibit is that at Bangkok, which opened December 7, 1954. At it our exhibit was awarded first prize. Over 100 American companies supplied items for inclusion in it. I shall ask the Congress for funds to continue this program.3 CONVERTIBILITY Convertibility of currencies is required for the development of a steadily rising volume of world trade and investment. The achieve 1 See sec. 30b of the Mutual Security Act of 1954 as amended; infra, p. 3118. H. Res. 1795, 84th Cong., 1st sess. Not enacted. No specific legislation was requested in 1955. The program was financed from the President's emergency funds. ment of convertibility has not been possible in the postwar period due to dislocations caused by the war, inflation, and other domestic economic difficulties in many countries, which have contributed to an imbalance in international trade and payments. However, steady progress, particularly by Western European countries, is being made toward our mutual objective of restoring currency convertibility. The foreign economic program proposed here will make an important contribution to the achievement of convertibility. AGRICULTURE No single group within America has a greater stake in a healthy and expanding foreign trade than the farmers. One-fourth to one-third of some major crops, such as wheat, cotton, and tobacco, must find markets abroad in order to maintain farm income at high levels. If they are to be successful, programs designed to promote the prosperity of agriculture should be consistent with our foreign economic program. We must take due account of the effect of any agricultural program on our foreign economic relations to assure that it contributes to the development of healthy, expanding foreign markets over the years. CONCLUSION The series of recommendations I have just made are all components of an integrated program, pointing in a single direction. Each contributes to the whole. Each advances our national security by bringing added strength and self-sufficiency to our allies. Each contributes to our economic growth and a rising standard of living among our people. 7. GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TARIFFS AND TRADE (GATT): Text of October 30, 1947, as Amended at the Ninth Session of the Contracting Parties, March 10, 1955 1 PART I Article I 1 1. The contracting parties recognize that their relations in the field of trade and economic endeavour should be conducted with a view to raising standards of living, ensuring full employment and a 1 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade: Basic Instruments and Selected Documents, vol. I (Revised), Texts of the General Agreement, as Amended, and of the Agreement on the Organization for Trade Cooperation (Geneva, The Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, April 1955), pp. 7-74. GATT was negotiated by 23 nations, signed at Geneva on Oct. 30, 1947, and, under the Protocol of Provisional Application of the same date, entered into force for the United States and seven other important trading nations on Jan. 1, 1948 (see TIAS 1700; 61 Stat., pts. 5 and 6). Adherents to the agreement had increased to 35 by the end of calendar year 1955. Rounds of multilateral tariff large and steadily growing volume of real income and effective demand, developing the full use of the resources of the world and expanding the production and exchange of goods, and promoting the progressive development of the economies of all the contracting parties. 2. The contracting parties desire to contribute to these objectives through this Agreement by entering into reciprocal and mutually advantageous arrangements directed to the substantial reduction of tariffs and other barriers to trade and to the elimination of discriminatory treatment in international commerce. Article II General Most-Favoured-Nation Treatment 1. With respect to customs duties and charges of any kind imposed on or in connection with importation or exportation or imposed on the international transfer of payments for imports or exports, and with respect to the method of levying such duties and charges, and with respect to all rules and formalities in connection with importation and exportation, and with respect to the application of internal taxes to exported goods, and with respect to all matters referred to in paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article IV, any advantage, favour, privilege or immunity granted by any contracting party to any product originating in or destined for any other country shall be accorded immediately and unconditionally to the like product originating in or destined for the territories of all other contracting parties. 2. The provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article shall not require the elimination of any preferences in respect of import duties or charges which do not exceed the levels provided for in paragraph 4 of this Article and which fall within the following descriptions: (a) preferences in force exclusively between two or more of the territories listed in Annex A, subject to the conditions set forth therein; (b) preferences in force exclusively between two or more territories which on 1 July 1939, were connected by common sovereignty or relations of protection or suzerainty and which are listed in Annexes B, C and D, subject to the conditions set forth therein; (c) preferences in force exclusively between the United States of America and the Republic of Cuba; negotiations took place at Annecy, France, in 1949, and at Torquay, England, in 1950-1951. Still another negotiating session opened at Geneva on Jan. 18, 1956. By 1953, it became apparent that the General Agreement, particularly its organizational provisions, needed revision. The Ninth Session of the Contracting Parties at Geneva, Oct. 28, 1954-Mar. 7, 1955, reviewed the document and proposed certain changes, which are incorporated in the text cited above, and prepared an Agreement on the Organization for Trade Cooperation (infra) "to further .. the achievement of the purposes and objectives" set forth in GATT. The amendments to GATT were accepted by the United States on Mar. 21, 1955. The Agreement on OTC is still before Congress (June 15, 1956). Meanwhile, GATT continues to operate under provisional arrangements. (See H. Rept. 2007, 84th Cong., 2d sess.). (d) preferences in force exclusively between neighbouring countries listed in Annex E. 3. The provisions of paragraph 1 shall not apply to preferences between the countries formerly a part of the Ottoman Empire and detached from it on 24 July 1923; Provided that such preferences are approved under paragraph 5 of Article XXV. 4. The margin of preference on any product in respect of which a preference is permitted under paragraph 2 of this Article but is not specifically set forth as a maximum margin of preference in the appropriate Schedule 2 annexed to this Agreement shall not exceed: (a) in respect of duties or charges on any product described in such Schedule, the difference between the most-favoured-nation and preferential rates provided for therein; if no preferential rate is provided for, the preferential rate shall for the purposes of this paragraph be taken to be that in force on 10 April 1947, and, if no most-favoured-nation rate is provided for, the margin shall not exceed the difference between the most-favoured-nation and preferential rates existing on 10 April 1947; (b) in respect of duties or charges on any product not described in the appropriate Schedule, the difference between the mostfavoured-nation and preferential rates existing on 10 April 1947. In the case of the contracting parties named in Annex F, the date of 10 April 1947, referred to in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) of this paragraph shall be replaced by the respective dates set forth in that Annex. Article III Schedules of Concessions 1. (a) Each contracting party shall accord to the commerce of the other contracting parties treatment no less favourable than that provided for in the appropriate Part of the appropriate Schedule annexed to this Agreement. (b) The products described in Part I of the Schedule relating to any contracting party, which are the products of territories of other contracting parties, shall, on their importation into the territory to which the Schedule relates, and subject to the terms, conditions or qualifications set forth in that Schedule, be exempt from ordinary customs duties in excess of those set forth and provided for therein. Such products shall also be exempt from all other duties or charges of any kind imposed on or in connection with importation, including charges of any kind imposed on the international transfer of payments for imports, in excess of those imposed on the date of this Agreement or those directly and mandatorily required to be imposed. thereafter by legislation in force in the importing territory on that date. 1 The treaty of peace between the Allied Powers and Turkey, signed at Lausanne; 23 League of Nations Treaty Series 115. 2 Schedules not reprinted. (c) The products described in Part II of the Schedule relating to any contracting party which are the products of territories entitled under Article II to receive preferential treatment upon importation into the territory to which the Schedule relates shall, on their importation into such territory, and subject to the terms, conditions or qualifications set forth in that Schedule, be exempt from ordinary customs duties in excess of those set forth and provided for in Part II of that Schedule. Such products shall also be exempt from all other duties or charges of any kind imposed on or in connection with importation, including charges of any kind imposed on the international transfer of payments for imports, in excess of those imposed on the date of this Agreement or those directly and mandatorily required to be imposed thereafter by legislation in force in the importing territory on that date. Nothing in this Article shall prevent any contracting party from maintaining its requirements existing on the date of this Agreement as to the eligibility of goods for entry at preferential rates of duty. 2. Nothing in this Article shall prevent any contracting party from imposing at any time on the importation of any product: (a) a charge equivalent to an internal tax imposed consistently with the provisions of paragraph 2 of Article IV in respect of the like domestic product or in respect of an article from which the imported product has been manufactured or produced in whole or in part; (b) any anti-dumping or countervailing duty applied consistently with the provisions of Article VI; (c) fees or other charges commensurate with the cost of services rendered 3. No contracting party shall alter its method of determining dutiable value or of converting currencies so as to impair the value of any of the concessions provided for in the appropriate Schedule annexed to this Agreement. 4. If any contracting party establishes, maintains or authorizes, formally or in effect, a monopoly of the importation of any product described in the appropriate Schedule annexed to this Agreement, such monopoly shall not, except as provided for in that Schedule or as otherwise agreed between the parties which initially negotiated the concession, operate so as to afford protection on the average in excess of the amount of protection provided for in that Schedule. The provisions of this paragraph shall not limit the use by contracting parties of any form of assistance to domestic producers permitted by other provisions of this Agreement. 5. If any contracting party considers that a product is not receiving from another contracting party the treatment which the first contracting party believes to have been contemplated by a concession provided for in the appropriate Schedule annexed to this Agreement, it shall bring the matter directly to the attention of the other contracting party. If the latter agrees that the treatment contemplated was that claimed by the first contracting party, but declares that such treatment cannot be accorded because a court or |