| End tariffs 2015 Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/331/business/US_seeks_end_to_tariffs_by_2015+.shtmlhttp://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/331/business/US_seeks_end_to_tariffs_by_2015+.shtml
US seeks end to tariffs by 2015 By Associated Press, 11/27/2002
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration, searching for a way to jump-start moribund global trade negotiations, announced a bold negotiating proposal yesterday to eliminate border taxes on manufactured goods by 2015.
The administration said its plan would amount to an $18 billion annual tax cut, the amount the government collected last year in manufacturing tariffs on everything from automobiles and airplanes to shirts and shoes.
''Our proposal would turn every corner store in America into a duty-free shop for working families,'' said US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick. ''This historic proposal would benefit the average American family of four with an extra $1,600 a year.''
Seeking to drive home the consumer impact, the administration invited managers from a suburban Wal-Mart store to pose with two identical shopping baskets full of clothing and baby items which currently sell for $202 but could be bought for $170 should the border taxes be eliminated.
The US proposal will be presented next week at a negotiating session of the 144-nation World Trade Organization in Geneva. The WTO has made little progress toward narrowing differences over a new round of global trade talks that were launched late last year in Doha, Qatar. Deep divisions exist on how best to reduce trade barriers not only on manufactured goods but also on agricultural products and on services.
The US proposal would phase out border taxes on nonagricultural goods in a two-step process. From 2005, when the current Doha round of trade talks is scheduled to be completed, to 2010, all tariffs currently at 5 percent or less would be eliminated, and tariffs higher than this level would have to be lowered to no more than 8 percent.
In phase two, the 8 percent tariffs would be lowered in steps each year, starting in 2010 until the tariffs were eliminated by 2015.
Big US manufacturing companies, which have long complained that high tariffs keep their goods out of poor countries, praised the administration proposal as a way to boost US exports.
American companies that have spent years successfully lobbying Congress for protection from imports of such products as clothing, textiles and glassware said the US proposal would result in the loss of more American jobs.
Auggie Tantillo, Washington coordinator of the American Textile Trade Action Coalition, said that American textile and apparel companies have lost 700,000 jobs since 1995 and more than 200 plants have closed in just the last two years.
''The US textile industry is in the worst crisis of its history,'' said Tantillo. He said the administration obviously waited until after the congressional elections to unveil this trade proposal because officials knew ''it would not be overly popular in the hinterlands.''
The Zero Tariff Coalition, composed of firms across a broad range of US industry from chemicals and distilled spirits to cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, praised the proposal. Maureen Smith, head of the group and a vice president of the American Forest & Paper Association, called it visionary.
This story ran on page E2 of the Boston Globe on 11/27/2002. © Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
|
|