FOREIGN TRADE: Protectionist Hoax?

When President Eisenhower approved a boost of up to 50% in tariffs on Swiss watches last summer, he gave a reason that even the most ardent low-tariff men found hard to attack. The Office of Defense Mobilization, said Ike, had found from an interdepartmental report that "preservation of the unique skills of this industry [in the U.S.] is essential to the national security." Last week, after months of prodding by U.S. watch importers, the Defense Department released a report of its own that took a position quite different from that of ODM.

More than two months before Eisenhower made his decision. Defense officials had studied the domestic jeweled-watch industry and reported: "No special nor preferential treatment for the industry is necessary ... It is apparent that manufacturers outside the jeweled-watch industry ... are capable of producing the mechanical time fuses and rear fitting safety devices" needed for mobilization.

No sooner was the report released than importers demanded that ODM reverse its original recommendation. Cried Maryland's Democratic Representative Richard E. Lankford: the President's tariff action last summer was based on "a gigantic hoax, a deception perpetrated by those persons inside and outside the Government who are interested in fostering a protectionist policy in the U.S."