Public Policy: Freer Trade Winds

U.S. business responded to the President's tariff reduction program surprisingly favorably.

Understandably eager for freer trade are the executives of the many U.S. industries already selling successfully overseas. But less predictably, freer trade has the endorsement, according to soundings taken by TIME correspondents, of many businessmen whose companies are currently suffering from import competition but who are confident they can counterattack effectively if foreign tariff barriers are dropped. Among the generally pro-free trade industries:

∙AUTOS. Says American Motors Corp.'s William S. Pickett, executive vice presi dent of A.M.C. Export: "If some indus tries can't make a go of it, why in hell don't they get out of business? With fewer restrictions, trade in general would be more competitive, and it would no longer be necessary to spend millions to set up foreign subsidiaries." ∙STEEL. "Our industry has survived com petitive situations before," says one big steel executive. "Although this is a tough predicament, we can do it again by pro viding better quality, better service, bet ter technology." ∙OIL. "It is not wage costs between the U.S. and Europe that should be com pared," says Cecil Morgan, Standard Oil of New Jersey's chief of government rela tions, "but unit costs of production; and if you do that you'll see that there isn't much difference." ∙PULP & PAPER. "We want freer trade with Europe, not tariff protection at home," says Crown Zellerbach Chairman J. D. Zellerbach. "The only way the U.S.

can hope to hold its export markets is by associating itself with the Common Mar ket movement." With Two Voices. The answer was more mixed in industries that anticipate mixed effects from lower tariffs. Examples: ∙ELECTRONICS. Parts manufacturers, such as Texas Instruments, faced with heavy Japanese competition, tend to be for pro tection. But Motorola, which does hand somely by using Japanese transistors and other components in some of its radio and TV sets, is all for freeing trade. Says Motorola President Robert Galvin: "In the final analysis, the U.S. industrialist will be far more interested in a potential world market of 2 billion customers than in a domestic market of 180 million." ∙MACHINE TOOLS. Manufacturers who produce only standard tools are pinched by foreign imports, and dread increased competition. Makers of special equipment, such as Warner & Swasey Co. (automated turret lathes), are not only unhurt but doing a big export business. "Now that European wage rates are going up and they're running out of skilled workers, our high-production machines are becoming important to them," says Warner & Swasey Executive Vice President James C. Hodge.