European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 20, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse The stars and stripes wednesday May 20,19b7 Colum its James Kilpatrick Trade Bill should be Tough but not too Tough sometime in june if All goes Well the Senate will Pas a Trade Bill. Conferees Mil be named Compro Mises will be reached and in Early autumn a Bill win1 go to the while House it probably won t be a Good Bill but paradoxically it surely will be a necessary Bill. The mood in the country As a whole reflected accurately on Capitol Hill is thai enough is enough. The . Trade deficit is running at about 1170 billion. The Japa Nese remain blandly indifferent to our problem. Our Trad ing partners in Europe ate unwilling to provide Relief. The View is widely held and in general correctly held that Uncle Sam has become a kind of International Patsy. On the seat of his striped pants is a sign that says kick under the circumstances something dramatic hat Tobe done. Both houses Are in a mood to do it. The trouble is that unless indignation is tempered with prudence the conferees will wind up by contributing to the problem not to the solution. The ill advised amendment sponsored by rep. Rich Ard Gephardt d-mo., suggests the consequences of uncontrolled anger. The Gephardt amendment is not quite As bad As Minnesota s Bill Franz cd painted floor debate in the House but its key provisions would do More harm than Good. Gephardt would require a president to take fierce retaliatory action against any major nation that exhibits a pattern of unjustifiable unreasonable or discriminatory Trade acts policies or practices that have a significant Adverse effect on United Stales such a find ing would trigger mandatory decrees by which Japan for example would have to reduce its imbalance by 10 per cent a year. As Frenzel observed any such decree would positively invite retaliation in kind. Some of our own Trad practices plainly would qualify As unjustifiable unreasonable or the rigid requirements of the Gephardt amendment could set off a Trade War in Gephardt Tiger. Which the primary casualties would be american Farmers and industries. Fortunately because Gephardt s draconian measure passed by a margin of Only four Voles no one i language to wind up in the Bill that will come out of conference. Whal we will gel i am told is a Gephardt like Compromise that will give a president a greater degree of discretion the trouble Here is that the Senate finance commit tee s idea of discretion is not exactly Ronald Reagan i idea of discretion. The Bill that shot out of Senate finance earlier this month would Vest in he International Trade commission More Power than the it ought to exercise. Suppose for example that the it finds that american made cellular telephones Are being seriously hurl by unfair imports. The president whoever he May be would be virtually compelled to adopt the it recommendations for Relief. Another provision of the Senate Bill having to do with dependence upon foreign Oil also is objectionable. Under one interpretation of this provision a presi Dent might be required to impose an Oil import tax by his own decree. Such a tax would be subject to congressional veto but the whole approach seems of doubtful constitutionality. The problem of getting our exports Back into rough balance with imports is As difficult a task As one can of the problem clearly lies with our trading partner it seems to be universally agreed that in Many instance they have engaged in dumping their products on world markets to the great disadvantage of . Producers. This is dirty Pool and members of Congress understand ably Are wrought up about it. But that is not the whole of the problem. During House debate Mel Levine of California spoke the unpalatable truth american business must shoulder its fair share of the blame for tiie erosion of our leadership position in world the Trade deficit result insubstantial part from the failure of american Industry to compete in new products and new ethnology. Neither a Gephardt amendment nor a Gephardt like Amend ment is going to cure that defect. Somewhere in the interminable coils of spen ser s Faerie Queen a female Warrior eels some sound advice. She sees written upon a door he counsel be bold be bold and everywhere be then the comes of a second door and finds a further message be not too it s a reminder for Congress to keep in mind on Trade legislation. Ictus be Tough be Tough and everywhere be Tough. But in the name of Wisdom Lei us heed the second message be not too Lough. Flora Lewis burgeoning population is Triumph and threat London perhaps while you Are Reading this newspaper perhaps not next week but soon the five billionth human inhabitant of this Earth will be born. Be fore the end of the Century there will be sin billion population is growing by 150a minute. H it a Triumph or a threat clearly it is both. The numbers reflect the Advance of human ingenuity in wresting survival Rorn nature. Agriculture Medicine Sci ence and Industry have transformed the planet s ability to support human life Toa degree that was unimagined even in the Middle of this Century How much further can we go obviously nobody knows. But we do Al ready know that somewhere there Are limits and that they lie in the capacity of the soil the atmosphere the regenerative forces that enable nature to continue supporting us. Either we will learn to face them and care for them or nature will reimpose the old malthusian method of famine pestilence and War to re store its own kind of balance. The . Fund for population activities has been meeting Here in an attempt to peer ahead. Because it is a . Group it is also concerned with development with the chances of All these burgeoning masses of people to extricate themselves from misery. It in t really True that the world is getting poorer As is sometimes said. But it is indeed True that there Are More and More desperately poor people increasing by some 220,000 a Day. Further As Lester Brown of world watch Institute pointed of. It is also becoming More and More difficult to Deal in an isolated Way with the prob lems being provoked there is a Chain reaction. Each important change in the balance provokes another at an accelerating Pace. In poor countries expanding Popula Tion brings deforestation As people Cut Down the Trees for firewood. That exposes topsoil so with poor land and no More Trees people turn to burning Ani Mal dung which impoverishes the spit even More. Tropical rain forests main Tain the moisture which keeps the Rains coming. As coast lands lose their cover the forests become Savannas and eventually deserts. Depletion of environmental resources affects economic capacity which comes to affect politics. Nothing is really Dis connected in the Long term. Brown gave some disturbing figures on Mexico. Ii was the first country to launch the Green revolution tripling i s Grain production from 1950 to 1970. But population grew so fast that its agriculture output is now going Down and in is importing huge amounts of food. Even with its Oil Bonanza Mexico was forced by its import needs into debts now beyond control. It has to borrow More just to pay the interest. At last the Burden of a population that is growing too much faster than the Economy and social need can meet has been recognized. But it is part of the dilemma As Brown says that it is much easier to re Duce population growth when living standards Are rising. The opposite is perversely True when the Economy is de Clining. The Well to do countries can pass All kinds of immigration Laws. But the pres sures of at least a portion of these rapidly growing populations around the world to seek the old escape by migration will continue to mount. They come from Africa and Asia As Well As Lai in America. Edgard Frisani of France said he had drawn two maps of France. One showed where Arab migrants live in particularly heavy concentrations. The other showed where there Are concentrations of voter support for Jean Marie be pen the Leader of France s ultralight party that preaches open racism. The two were exactly the same. Be pen s party is still marginal but it a blot an could become a menace to French democracy. The technical Side of the population Issue and what can be done about it it difficult enough. But there ii an underly ing political argument usually veiled that makes it All much worse. Until recently Many african and other third world Leaden look the stand that population control off Brit were a hidden demand for maintaining White supremacy. It if equated win Power in the world and since they know they Aren t going to win the race for eco nomic Power in the foreseeable future some of these Leaden go for population Power. In response some Whites now argue in favor of population growth in Western countries so As not to be out bred. But if population is still a political weapon it is double edged. Everybody Rich and poor will be adversely affected unless it is seen As a global problem Par of Man s new responsibility to preserve the sustaining balance of nature. Ute Yak time of twi s4nka the option Aap Nim of inn Paol Tep Taia
