LESHER URGES BUSINESS TO DEFEND REAGAN PLAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84B00049R001700010010-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 27, 2007
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: April 20, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ApriA 20, 1 981
r te' rc rt d easur c s ou a T es
By Tom Sticghorst
Export-trading company legislation,
which passed the Senate unanimously prior
to the congressional recess, faces a tougher
test in the House.
The legislation mustbe approved by three
committees-.Judiciary, Banking and For-
eign Affairs-before it can be sent to the
full House for a vote.
After failing last year to report the leg-
islation, committee leaders have sharp
differences over how to handle banking
and antitrust provisions in the bill.
House Version Supported
Support for a House version of the Sen-
ate-passed bill is likely to be centered in
the Foreign Affairs Committee, while the
Judiciary and Banking committees are
likely to push for substantial changes in
the Senate measure.
The trading-company bill, which has been
pending for three years, would provide one-
stop export counseling to sRiall businesses
that cannot afford to absorb the risks and
manage the logistics of overseas trade on
their own. The measure seeks to update
the 191S Webb-Pomerene Act, which first
allowed companies to form export associ-
ations.
The most serious dispute is likely to
evolve over how much antitrust immunity
to give export associations. Critics say the
Webb-Pomerene Act is largely ineffective
without stronger antitrust provisions.
Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige
told the House Judiciary Committee:
"In our efforts over the years to promote
the formation of Webb-Pomerene associ-
ations, we have heard from the business
community the opinion that may U.S. com-
panies have abandoned plans for joint ex-
porting at an early planning stage because
they did not have sufficient confidence in
its antitrust exemption."
The Senate bill would grant immunity
from antitrust prosecution for certain ac-
tivities that might be challenged by the
Justice Department in domestic markets.
The activities would be spelled out in cer-
tificates from the Commerce Department.
Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.), who devel-
oped the antitrust tit!c of the Senate bill,
says this is the only approach that will
convince small businesses-who are re-
Juctant to risk antitrust prosecution-to
form export associations.
Some Representatives Disagree
However, Ilouse Judiciary Committee
leaders Peter Rodino (D-N.J.) and Robert
IsfcClorv IR-III.) believe Danforth's ap-
proach would create more problems than
it solves by subjecting the companies to
the regulatory supervision of the Com-
merce Department and establishing a bu-
reaucratic certification procedure.
Companies might wait up to three rnnriths
for the certificates to be issued under the
Senate measure.
Another disagreement may focus on the.
degree to which banks will be allowed to
participate in export-trading companies.
Sen. John Ilcinz lR-Pa.), chairman of it
Senate flanking subeumi nittee on trade,
argues that bank participation in the (cx.
port-trading companies is essential, both
to help the companies raise capital and to
Worktime Lost to Strikes
Very Low Last February
The number nfwork stoppages in United
States plants "remained at exceptionally
low levels in February;' the Bureau ofl.al-m,r
Statistics reports.
-- The bureau said that only .04 percent
of estimated worktime was lost to strikes
that month, the lowest such figure in 37
years.
The 647,000 days of strike-caused idle-
ness was the lowest for the month since
take advantage of the trade expertise that
many banks with overseas branches have
developed.
House Banking Chairman Fernand St.
Germain I D-R.1.) expressed strong concern
last year that a similar Senate measure
might violate the separation of banking
and commerce established in the Glass-
Steagall Act. That act was passed to pre-
vent banks from granting favorable loans
to businesses in which they would have
part ownership.
The Senate bill allows banks to invest
up to 5 percent oftheir capital in an export-
trading company and would bar any bank-
ing organization from investing more than
S10 million or taking a controlling interest
in an ETC without prior approval of the
Federal Reserve Board.
Critics argue that this still would allow
banks to control export-trading compa-
nies, and sources say the banking provi-
sions of the (louse bill are likely to be less
favorable to bank ownership of.trading
firms.
None of the three committees has sched-
uled hearings yet on the legislation. Sources
on the Judiciary committee said that panel
will be preoccupied with budget matters
through mid-May. The Banking panel may
hold off on hearings until the other two
committees have finished drafting their
bills, a spokesman said.
Trade experts say that passage of the
export-trading company measure would
help reduce the U.S. trade deficit, which
hit $26 billion in 1980. The Commerce
Department estimates that 20,000 small
and medium-sized businesses could be en-
couraged to export.
- " l alp y e eyP
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Lesher Urges Business
To Defend Reagan Plan
Lcsher-from page 1
budget under control and tax-rate deduc-
tions that would restore incentives, relieve
the burden on taxpayers and revitalize the -
American economy.
On the other hand, he said, the Budget
Committee's alternative proposal would
retard efforts toward budget control and
toward relieving "an ever-rising burden."
"Such proposals are not alternatives,"
Lesher declared. "They are more of the
same 'spend-and-tax' philosophy that
caused our current economic crisis and
generated the public's demand for a change
last November.
"The only real alternative to more of the
same is the president's cohesive, coordi-
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recovery." -
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Approved For Release 2007/06/27: CIA-RDP84B00049RO01700010010-7