Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 23, 1994 TAG: 9411010001
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SAM GIBBONS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which I now chair, Hull watched in frustration in 1930 as his colleagues wrote and passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which dramatically raised U.S. import tariffs and quickly provoked copycat measures around the world. In Hull's studied opinion, protectionism not only intensified and prolonged the Depression but also aggravated an already severe case of ill will among nations.
When Hull became secretary of state, he leaped at his chance to reverse Smoot-Hawley by orchestrating an avalanche of bilateral tariff reductions and, finally, by instigating a broad international agreement to encourage open trade by systematically eliminating trade barriers.
The agreement Hull helped bring about was dubbed the GATT. Its economic benefits were designed to dovetail with the immediate strategic goals of American foreign policy in the wake of World War II. Hull and others of like mind believed that economically interdependent nations would not pick fights with one another.
Today's debate over GATT's Uruguay Round, which comes up for a congressional vote in a lame-duck session after the elections, has focused primarily on its economic merits. It has ignored the agreement's broader political ramifications. We've lost sight of the deeper meaning of GATT - what it has meant not only for the world economy but for the community of nations as well. We've completely overlooked the fact that GATT symbolizes the most successful effort in American diplomacy - forging out of war's chaos and poverty a world of prosperity and harmony.
I happen to share Cordell Hull's vision in a very personal way. Thanks in part to the same misguided trade policies that he worked so hard to obliterate, I found myself coasting into France via parachute on D-Day. Hitler's ``Fortress Europe'' was an extreme example of this economic isolation.
I firmly believe that a world bound together by the ties of trade is a world strongly inclined toward economic growth and peace.
We must not take these ties lightly. We must not think of these links between nations as things that can be easily untied and quickly rejoined. They are the products of decades of work and sometimes tragic experience.
Today the Cold War is over; the enemy of nearly 50 years has disappeared. Under these circumstances there is a natural tendency for countries to turn inward and ignore their ties to the world community. We must do all we can to prevent this from happening. America must persist in the leadership role we adopted a half-century ago. As a start in this direction, we must hold on to institutions like GATT that have a proven record of success.
Should we fail to approve the Uruguay Round, we will commit a foreign-policy blunder of huge proportions. It would be tantamount to a declaration that we were no longer up to our role as leader of the community of nations - a message that would ring loud and clear in the capitals of other nations.
There is no doubt in my mind that the economic benefits of GATT more than justify passage of the Uruguay Round. But in one key respect, these benefits are of only secondary importance.
Much more significant is what the vote on the Uruguay Round says about our resolve to continue to lead in world affairs.
Will we tell our allies and the rest of the world that they can no longer look to Washington for leadership? Or will we say that America can be counted on to lead in the years ahead just as it has for decades past?
Sam Gibbons, a Democrat from Florida, chairs the House Ways and Means Committee.
The Washington Post
by CNB