TABLE II.—Examples of United States exports of products subject to trade agreement concessions-Continued Due to balance-of-payments difficulties, Chile has resorted in recent years to increased import surcharges to reduce imports. Cuba: Automobiles, trucks, buses, trailers, and parts.. Lube oils. Rice.. Wheat flour.. Petroleum. Cuba does not maintain a general control over its import trade. Import permits are required on about 8 commodities. However, this imposition of license requirements was for administrative reasons and has had a negligible effect on Cuba's total imports from the United States. The Dominican Republic does not have exchange control and requires import licenses excepting on wheat and wheat flour, rice, ferti lizers, radio transmission apparatus, and firearms. These controls are not designed to restrict imports. El Salvador: Tires and tubes.. Canned asparagus, peas, corn, and tomatoes.. Canned pork. Phonograph records.. El Salvador has almost no quantitative restrictions on imports. Finland: 1 Industrial trucks and truck trailers.. Motion pictures Calculating machines and cash registers.. Finnish imports from the United States are subject to license. However, automatic licensing is accorded to a substantial number of goods (46 percent of all dollar items by unofficial Finnish estimates). France: Machine tools.. Carbon black.. All imports into France are subject to license. Balance of payments difficulties and internal considerations such as the effect on price levels are reflected in the administrative case-to-case decisions. Cranes and fork-stacking machines.. Tires and tubes. 94 percent of German dollar imports have been liberalized. Ghana: Ghana was too recently formed as an autonomous state to demonstrate trade developments over a period of years. Imports into Ghana from the dollar area require an import license which must be justified by nonavailability in the sterling area and essentiality to the economy. More than 95 percent of Greece's trade has been freed from restrictions. Only a few luxury items and certain machines remain subject to import licensing. Bee footnotes at end of table. 27629-58-pt. 2- -6 TABLE II.-Examples of United States exports of products subject to trade agreement concessions-Continued [In thousands of dollars] Haiti: Tires and tubes. Passenger cars. The low level of trade in 1957 was due to bad weather and serious political instability. There is no system of exchange controls in Haiti, and goods are not subject to import quotas. Import licenses are required only for a few items such as tobacco, firearms and ammunition. Honduras: Iceland: 1 Lubricating oil.. Typewriters.. Oat grits.. Soybean oil. Foreign exchange licenses are required for all imports and are presently granted sparingly due to low export earnings. India and Pakistan: Nonfat dry milk solids. Tobacco.. Industrial lubricating oils.. Air conditioning and refrigerating machinery. All imports into India are subject to quota limitations. In general, while India's policy has become more restrictive, discrimination against dollar goods in favor of soft-currency imports is being reduced. All private imports into Pakistan are subject to license. At present licenses are granted very sparingly. Indonesia: 1 Tobacco. Tires and tubes. Internal combustion engines.. Motor buses and trucks. 14 6, 074 49, 303 Wheat flour. No quantitative restrictions as such are maintained by Indonesia. However, all private imports are subject to prior licensing and at present licenses are severely curtailed. For the last several years United States exports to Iran have been virtually unrestricted. An absolute prohibition which Iran maintains on a few items does not affect American trade. All imports into Japan are subject to license. A complicated system of administration of the import controls makes it difficult to determine whether progress is being made toward liberalization. It seems probable that steps in this direction in 1955 and early 1956 were checked by the severe balance-of-payments deficit which developed in late 1956 and 1957. Bee footnotes at end of table. TABLE II.-Examples of United States exports of products subject to trade agreement concessions-Continued [In thousands of dollars] Malaya: The Federation is too newly established to show developing trade trends over the years. Import licenses are required for all products but many are on open general license. Discrimination against hard currency imports has relaxed very gradually over the years. A legal channel of import through Hong Kong at a premium of 5 to 15 percent affords opportunity for free import from the dollar area. New Zealand: Tobacco. Woodworking machinery. Office machinery and parts.. Books and printed matter. From 1951 to 1957 import controls in New Zealand were gradually liberalized from the previous tight position resulting from balance of payments difficulties. However, renewed deterioration of the payments position resulted in a new import licensing schedule on Jan. 1, 1958 which generally intensified important restrictions. Nicaragua: Wheat flour. Paints, varnishes, and lacquers.. Evaporated and condensed milk Quantitative import restrictions in Nicaragua are negligible. However, all imports are subject to import permits which are freely granted provided deposit requirements, where applicable, are met. Deposits, ranging from no deposit (essential items) to 100 percent of c. i. f. value (nonessentials) are required prior to issuance of the import permit. Norway: 1 Dried fruit. 86 percent of all imports (based on 1953 imports) from the dollar area have been liberalized. Automotive tractors and parts.. Typewriters and parts. Coin counters, cash registers, calculating and bookkeeping machines.. In August of 1957 Paraguay abandoned its complicated multiple foreign exchange rate system and established a free import and export market. Trade is now carried on without restriction of any kind. Peru: Automobiles, trucks, buses, and parts. Tinplate... 500 1, 221 Iron and steel pipe. 2,450 Sawmill products.. 3,829 Textile machinery and parts. 3,633 Pneumatic portable tools. There are no restrictions on imports into Peru except a quota limitation on automobiles. All Rhodesia and Nyasaland: The Federation has not been in existence long enough to demonstrate marked trends in United States trade. imports from the United States are subject to license. A few commodities such as wheat and automobiles are subject to quota restrictions. Imports of another long list of items, mainly luxury goods, are prohibited. All other items are on open general license and licenses are automatically granted. With a few exceptions, all Swiss imports from all countries are free of restriction. There is no discrimination against the United States in granting licenses for the few restricted groups. All imports from all sources are subject to license and exchange controls, which are presently applied on a very restrictive basis. Bee footnotes at end of table. TABLE II.-Examples of United States exports of products subject to trade agreement concessions-Continued Welding torch sets and parts.. Since 1949 a system of import controls has limited imports into the Union of South Africa. For balance of payments reasons, dollar imports were restricted in favor of sterling imports but beginning in 1954 currency discrimination was abolished and a policy of "selective relaxation of import controls" was introduced. United Kingdom: Wheat.. Bookbinding machinery. Over 50 percent of United Kingdom imports from the dollar area have been liberalized. Uruguay has had increasing balance of payments difficulties which in August of 1957 closed the foreign exchange market for several weeks. In November the Bank of the Republic announced that dollar exchange could be made available only for essential imports not obtainable in soft currency areas. Priority treatment is given imports from soft currency areas with which Uruguay has bilateral trade and/or payments agreements in effect, and with which it has favorable trade balances. Venezuela: Wheat flour. Copper wire.. Cigarettes. Automobiles, trucks, buses, and trailers. Venezuela imposes few quantitative restrictions on or prohibition of imports of industrial products. Total or partial exemption from duties is granted on many items which go toward development of industrial and mining capacity. A few agricultural items are subject to license and quota restrictions. 1 Trade data shown for this country are imports into the country rather than United States exports. 2 Data for 1948. Data for 1938. Data for 1956. Not available. |