European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 19, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes thursday september 19, 1985 columns & comments James Kilpatrick in shoe decision Reagan can f avoid being a Heel Parks ident a Kuivas decision in the Case of the footwear Industry presents is night problem As he Ever is Likely to encounter in Llie Field of International Trade sound principle says one thing prudent politics says Tim incr. These Are the essential facts. On May 22. The inter National 7  commission by unanimous vote found that imports of non rubber footwear arc causing serious injury to our Domestic shoe Industry. On june 12. A a vote of 4-1. The commission recommended that quotas be imposed for the next five years la is now up to the president to accept reject or modify the 1tc proposal. The president finds himself in a bind. I Iid Cnoc was overwhelming in support of the it s Basic finding. As recently As 1%h, our Domestic Indus try employed 233.000 persons it produced 642 million pairs of shoes it controlled 7l percent of the i a . In 1968 we imported 1 million pairs from Taiwan 14 million from Spain fewer than 50.000 from Bra in. Compare last year s figures a i9s4, employment had dropped to 121,000 workers the Domestic Industry last year produced 2l?8 million pairs it held Only 2h percent of the . Market. Last year we imported 307 million pairs of shoes from Taiwan. 3ft million from Spain. 63 million from Bra in. In the past four years. 208 Domestic plants have closed their doors and though these have been offset by some openings the net result is an unemployment rate of is percent. Viewed statistically the data May not be alarming. Of household afford to in i workforce of i06 million. 121.000 Shoemakers Are Insi Inifi cent. In a Gross National product approaching $4 trillion 54 billion in Domestic wholesale shoe sales is a barely visible item. But these arc Antiseptic sterilized ii Wircs containing no hint of human contamination. We Are talking of 121,000 human beings most of them women most of Ihm employed in Small factories in Rural communities. On the average Hoy earn about 514 000 a year. Only 500 plants remain in the United slates. These arc scattered Over w Stales. Maine s 60 plants Are typical they a Milos an average of Only 283 persons but these jobs arc of vital importance to their Louns. The Industry on this record has indeed suffered grievously from imports. The reasons Are All too familiar our Domestic wage rates about 56.50 an hour arc double those of Spain six times those of Brazil almost five times Hose of Taiwan. The . Industry has failed to match the fashionable Appeal of shoes from abroad. Though the picture has improved in recent years Many of the closed plants have closed because no infusions of fresh capital and new technology could make them prof Itable. Whal to Doin principle the answer is easy. The it s vice chairman Susan w. I cycler. Spoke the Blunt truth in her dissent last month this is a dying  the closing of unprofitable plants should be left to run its course. We ought not to keep Ihm on life support through the protectionist device of quotas. If we believe in the principle of free Trade we should not violate that principle. Other considerations the proposed quotas which would Cut annual imports from 726 million pairs to 474 million pairs would severely affect our trading partners. The damage would not be intolerable in Taiwan which exports mostly inexpensive shoes that would be exempted from the quota but the recommendations would hav a devastating Impact on Brazil. The shoe Industry  $900 million a year to Brazil s Economy 200,000 workers Are employed in 500 Small to medium plants. Brazil is struggling desperately to meet pay ments on its debt and to get its fiscal House in order. This would be a serious blow. Still other considerations the it s action is what is known As a Section 201 proceeding under the Trade act of 1974. Such proceedings offer a safety valve to Lake protectionist pressures off Congress. If the it s recommendations Are rejected As to show car we can anticipate new Waves of protectionist legislation on Ca Pitol Hill. Protectionist storms already arc raging there. This is a Tough one. Compassionate instincts say yes Domestic political considerations say yes but concerns of free Trade and International comity say no. Perhaps a Middle course Between acceptance and rejection offers a fair answer. Hard cases Lead to hard decisions this is Why presidents get Gray. 1985, Una Versol Preiti Syndicate James Reston Parks ident Reagan seems to be thinking a Little less these Days about ideology and a Little More about history. Me is not alone. Despite the noisy clash and Clatter of politics within and Between the nations there is a Glimmer of Hope that Many political prophets who promised to save the world when they came in arc now adjusting to the brutal facts and tying to save them selves As they go out. Reagan is the most obvious Case in Point. In his first White mouse term he won by condemning and con fronting his political opponents on both economic and foreign policy. Now in his second term like so Many presidents before him. He is compromising with them even on some issues like free world Trade where the historic facts arc on his Side. As Jimmy Carter said of Bert Lance you have to give him credit Reagan s vision of the world May be imperfect but he recognizes a Stone Wall in Congress when it is brought to his attention. The fact is that his promised political fall offensive on Capitol Hill has become a Retreat. It is now Congress and not the White House that is defining the legislative Agenda for the last months of the year on South Africa Trade the budget farm policy and foreign policy. The president s threat of vetoes has been vetoed and not by the democrats but by his own leaders on the Hill. How the president dealt with this revolt against his policies at Home and abroad explains a lot about his political Success. Almost everything he proposed to get elected he has repudiated Lostay in Power. Almost everything he rejected Trade sanctions against South Africa and the allies compromises in the Middle East sales of Grain and Gas lines to the soviet Union Trade with China against the protests of Taiwan and Barry Goldwater he has not Only accepted but insisted that this was on his mind All along. The other political leaders of the world arc doing the same. Mikhail Gorbachev the soviet Leader is now Corning across As a Champion of Friendly persuasion giving interviews to time Magazine entertaining . Senators in the Kremlin and talking like de Toque Villa about the common interests of the soviet Union and America. This is not too bad. President Botha of South Africa is beginning to get the word from Capitol Hill from the White House and particularly from the american Bank ers that racial discrimination is not Good business and May have to be changed on economic if not moral grounds. So something is happening in the world that May be important. The posturing of politicians with their bawl ing nationalistic patriotism and their promises of eco nomic or religious solutions to the world s problems i simply not working. " Reagan has finally tumbled to the fact that his deficits Are no recommendation for his promises and that even his own buddies in the White House and the con Gress think it s a la tic late to blame All the suffering of the world on the russians and the democrats. So he seems to be looking for a Way out of his tangles and is beginning to think about the uses of adversity and the judgments of history. Of All the millions of words written about South Africa and the human dilemmas of race nationalism peace and Justice and about what if anything can be done about it these Days few can match the words of Alan Paton the author of cry the beloved country when he came to new York in october 1949 and suggested his remedy for the present tragedy of human conflict. It s my own belief he said at that time that the Only Power which can resist the Power of fear is the Power of love. It s a weak thing and a tender thing me despise and deride it. But i look for the Day when in South Africa we shall realize that the Only lasting and worthwhile Solu Tion of our grave and profound problems lies not in the use of Power but in that understanding and compassion without which human life is an intolerable bondage condemning us All to an existence of violence misery and fear. Maybe some people arc beginning to listen. To new York Tom Reagan adjusting to facts thinking less about ideology