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Mr. REVNES. Yes, sir, $35 billion a year during the next 5-year period. The capital investment need for these countries, as Mr. Percy pointed out, is very great. They recognize the need for development to compete in world markets, because low-cost labor does not necessarily make them competitive in a world market as well.

Senator BENNETT. Thinking in terms of American capital investment, or are they thinking in terms of trade?

Mr. REVNES. They are thinking in terms of trade, but purchase of American capital goods. They are very anxious to make licensing arrangements where possible; and if protection can be given to the American manufacturer so that his patents can be protected internationally and the copyrights of his products, I think American businessmen are willing

Senator BENNETT. Do you think the people of Chicago would be as interested in continuing the reciprocal trade arrangement if their share of the domesticaly produced products had to be wiped out of the market in order that the trade abroad might be stepped up to $35 billion?

Mr. REVNES. I think that almost all economic activity, Senator, is predicated on enlightened self-interest, and I believe that American businessmen are ingenious, as Mr. Percy has said, and also as resourceful as the need arises. I believe it is within the Midwest's most enlightened self-interest today to be a great advocate of international or foreign trade.

Senator BENNETT. Let us be specific a minute.

We do not have an increase in our gross national product of $35 billion a year, and if these people expect to step up their trade with us by $35 billion, then obviously the American production sold in the American market must be diminished by a very large part of that amount of volume.

Mr. REVNES. Well, I cannot agree on that, sir.

Senator BENNETT. Tell me why.

Mr. REVNES. I cannot agree the economy is not expanding enough to take care of an additional billions of dollars of exports without handicapping the expansion of the domestic market.

Senator BENNETT. Let's be reasonable. Our domestic market is not expanding $35 billion a year.

Mr. REVNES. I do not say in 1 year we can expand, but in a period of 5 years of good negotiations, reductions of tariffs on a negotiated basis, I think we can increase our trade with the rest of the world to a total of about $35 billion.

Senator BENNETT. Then you are reversing your position, you are reversing your answer to my first question. I asked you if they wanted $35 billion a year or $35 billion over 5 years, and you stated $35 billion a year.

Mr. REVNES. I misstated my position, I am sorry.
Senator BENNETT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator FREAR. Thank you, Mr. Revnes.

Mr. REVNES. Thank you.

(Mr. Revnes' prepared statement follows:)

STATEMENT OF RICHARD REVNES, DIRECTOR OF SERVICES, CHICAGO ASSOCIATION OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

My name is Richard Revnes. I am director of services of the Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry. I appear on behalf of the association to present its views on H. R. 12591, the bill to renew the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act.

The Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry is a voluntary organization of individuals, firms, and corporations, organized and existing under the laws of the State of Illinois. It has 6,106 member organizations. Through committees and a professional staff of more than 100 individuals, these member organizations work together to improve the Chicago metropolitan area's commercial, industrial, and civic operations. Although the name of our organization is the Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry, it functions as the chamber of commerce for the Chicago metropolitan area.

The Chicago metropolitan area has been designated as such by the Bureau of the Census, United States Department of Commerce, and comprises an area including 5 counties in Illinois and 1 county in Indiana. In this area are included, in addition to Chicago, approximately 180 suburban or satellite communities, among them such important industrial towns and cities as Gary, Hammond, Aurora, Elgin, Cicero, Skokie, and Waukegan.

Within this area are located 14,000 manufacturing establishments, in which a total of about three million people are employed. The population of the area is approximately 6,400,000. The Chicago metropolitan area is comprised of 3,617 square miles, an area larger than the combined States of Delaware, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia.

The Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry endeavors to promote the growth and stability of business in the Chicago metropolitan area and improved legislation that forms the framework within which the area's business operates.

The association was founded in 1904. Funds to carry on its operations come from voluntary membership dues paid by Chicago business firms and professional men and women. About 1,600 members serve on a wide variety of permanent or special committees. Each committee is composed of persons chosen for their standing in the community and for their wide knowledge in some particular field of business or civic endeavor. Specific examples of this committee activity are the work of the world trade committee, the Canadian-American trade and industry commitee, the transportation committee, the harbors and waterways committee, and the aviation committee.

As set forth in the 1957-58 annual report, committee directory submitted with my written statement, the committees, officers, and directors of the association represent a broad cross section of the area's commerce, industry, and civic organizations.

The association has supported the reciprocal trade agreements program since its inception, being among the first two chambers of commerce in the United States to record that support. Upon the occasion of each previous renewal of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, the association committee concerned, and the association's board of directors, have considered the legislation proposed and have reaffirmed support of the program.

In arriving at our decision to support the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, due consideration is given to the widely varied and sometimes conflicting interests of our membership. The consistency of the actions of our committees and boards of directors, representing widely divergent interests, over the period of the last 25 years, demonstrates, I believe, that our support of this legislation is sound and reflects the thinking of the majority of the association's membership. The most recent reaffirmation of this association's approval of the reciprocal trade agreements program was by the unanimous vote of our board of directors. The Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry makes the following recommendations with respect to H. R. 12591, which would extend the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act:

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1. That the act be renewed for the period of 5 years proposed in the bill before It is our considered opinion that 5 years is the minimum time necessary for the United States to develop a policy and carry out negotiations with the important new European Common Market.

2. That the President be granted authority to reduce tariffs on a gradual and selective basis, in return for concessions by other countries, as provided for in H. R. 12591.

Foreign trade is vital to the expanding economy of the Chicago area and all of Mid-America. Although it is not possible to determine the exact extent of the total exports of this area under methods used to compile foreign trade statistics, various studies give some indication of its volume. According to the 1954 Census of Manufactures, the Chicago metropolitan area ranked first among metropolitan areas in the production of primary metals, fabricated metals, and nonelectrical machinery; second in foods, electrical machinery, chemicals, printing and publishing, furniture and fixtures, and paper.

The Department of Commerce, conducting an exhaustive research into the impact of foreign trade on various geographical areas of the United States, reports that in Cook County, 1 of the 6 counties in the Chicago metropolitan area, about 461,000 workers participate in the benefit of such trade. About 60 percent of all those employed in manufacturing in Cook County are in firms falling into 5 major manufacturing classifications: fabricated metal products, nonelectrical machinery, printing and publishing, food and kindred products, and electrical machinery. The county's proportionate share in United States exports of these 5 groups amounted to over $400 million in 1956. Cook County establishments in these industry groups engage directly in foreign trade, but this is only part of the picture. Many of the county's products are exported as component parts. According to the 1954 Census of Manufactures, there are over 1,000 establishments in Cook County engaged in producing food and kindred products, employing about 95,000 people. Food and kindred products accounted for more than $1 billion worth of exports nationally in 1956. Cook County's share of these exports is estimated at $60 million.

Approximately 112,000 persons were employed by 581 Cook County firms in the production of electrical machinery at the time of the Commerce Department survey. In 1956 total United States exports of electrical machinery exceeded $921 million. Computed on a per employee basis, Cook County's proportionate share of these exports is an impressive $102.8 million. The county was responsible for more than one-tenth of the exports of electrical machinery in 1956, on a proportionate share basis.

The Commerce Department survey also shows that 1,571 firms in Cook County producing nonelectrical machinery employ a total of more than 106,000 persons. In 1956 the national total for exports of nonelectrical machinery was nearly $3 billion. Cook County's share, computed on a proportionate basis, is better than $194 million.

In printing and publishing, better than 75,000 persons are employed in Cook County. Nationally, the United States exports printed and published materials valued at close to $100 million. In this field the most important consideration is not export, but import. These industries in Cook County have a large stake in foreign commerce because approximately 80 percent of the newsprint consumed in the United States is imported. These printing and publishing houses are also using inks manufactured with imported dyes and type facings made of imported alloys.

In fabricated metal products there were in 1956, 1,751 firms in Cook County employing about 83,000 persons. The national total for exports of fabricated metal products that year was $443 million. Computed on a per employee basis, this would give Cook County a proportionate share of exports in this classification of nearly $34 million. It is estimated that there are in the Chicago metropolitan area more than 2,000 firms engaged in exporting, including close to 200 export sales organizations, which handle the foreign sales of manufacturers not having their own export divisions.

The Middle West is the source of an estimated 40 percent or more of United States exports, agricultural and manufactured. In an exhaustive export survey which the association is now completing, we mailed approximately 6,000 questionnaires to firms in the States of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas, and parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Colorado, South Dakota, and Wyoming, believed to be actively engaged or interested in export activity. The geographical area covered in this survey is shown on the questionnaire which is submitted as part of this statement.

Up to the present time, 557 firms have completed or partially filled in and returned the questionnaire. On the basis of such returns, it would appear that 4,500 to 5,000 companies in the area shown are actively engaged in exporting. Of the 557 firms that furnished information, 521 reported exports in 1956 of 2,967,223 tons, of which 1,766,116 tons were manufactured goods and 1,201,107 tons, agricultural products, coal, minerals, cotton, etc.

Dollar value totaling $873,255,000 was reported by 429 of the 557 firms. If all 557 companies had reported both tonnage and dollar value figures, it is conservatively estimated that the total tonnage and dollar value of the 1956 exports of these firms would be 3,172,226 tons and $1,133,800,000.

A recent survey completed by the United States-Japan Trade Council reports that the 5 States of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin accounted for $309 million of sales to Japan in 1957. This surpassed all other regions of the United States.

The growth of import activity in the Chicago metropolitan area in recent years is reflected by the increase in the number of importers, import agents and brokers in the area. The records of our World Trade Division disclose that in 1950 there were 483 such firms and individuals; in 1954, 823; and currently more than 1,200. These include manufacturers that import raw materials and component parts used in the fabrication of their products, wholesalers which distribute throughout the area, and retailers such as our major department stores, which sell through their own outlets.

Forecasts by responsible governmental and private institutions as to the volume of waterborne commerce, foreign and domestic, expected to move by the St. Lawrence seaway when the project and connecting channels are completed range from 37 to 46 million tons. In metropolitan Chicago, two additional waterway projects-port development in the Lake Calumet area by the Chicago Regional Port District, and at the mouth of the Chicago River by the city, and the widening of the Sag Channel connecting Lake Calumet with the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and the Illinois River-are underway. Within 1 year after completion of the various projects, scheduled for 1962, it is estimated that overseas cargo of all types moving through the port of Chicago should increase to at least 1,500,000 tons.

We have estimated that within 15 years after the completion of the three projects mentioned, new investment in industrial-plant facilities will reach $10 billion. Within this same period it is anticipated these new industries will provide jobs directly and indirectly for several hundred thousand workers, including 40.000 jobs directly connected with water transportation. The estimate, therefore, of 1.5 million tons within 5 years after the seaway is completed is believed to be conservative.

All of the present facts and future projections make it clear that the already important international commerce of Chicago and the Middle West requires the continuance and extension of a foreign economic policy that will result in the maintenance and expansion of world trade. The United States consistently exports more than it imports. If we are to continue to have an export business that provides jobs for millions of United States workers without underwriting indefinitely, through foreign aid, the difference between our foreign sales and our imports; if we want to bring back to this country, in dollars, the earnings on investment abroad; we must make it possible for other nations to market in this country raw materials and finished products which we need and want.

Preceding witnesses have presented in detail testimony that renewal of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act in an effective manner is essential to our national economic and political interests, that the jobs provided by our exports, and imports of needed commodities, far outnumber those adversely affected by the importation of a comparatively small amount of competitive foreign goods. The reciprocal trade agreements program is a basic cornerstone of our foreign economic policy. The Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry, therefore, strongly urges that the act be extended in an effective form. H. R. 12591, providing for a period of 5 years and negotiated, reciprocal duty reductions but with provisions for defense essentiality protection and relief from undue import competition, should be passed without amendment. This, we believe, is in the best interest of not only our members and area but of the entire United States.

Senator FREAR. Mr. Bernard Weitzer, Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America.

STATEMENT OF BERNARD WEITZER, NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR, JEWISH WAR VETERANS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Mr. WEITZER. I have a brief statement here, and I think I can save the committee's time by reading it rapidly rather than to try to comment on it.

Senator FREAR. All right, sir.

Mr. WEITZER. As you see from the text of the statement, we are strongly in favor of the passage of the bill you are considering here before your committee.

On behalf of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America, I am happy, once again, to express appreciation for the opportunity to present to your important committee our views on the Trade Agreements Extension Act which you are now considering.

This time, as on previous occasions, I appear before this committee by the authority of the strongly worded resolution passed by our national convention. The following resolution was passed at our 62d annual national convention:

Whereas, the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act comes before the Congress for renewal in the 2d session of the 85th Congress; and

Whereas in its functioning through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, this act has proved notably successful in promoting American exports and our foreign trade as a whole and minimizing the frictions and restrictions which occasionally develop in the course of trade; and

Whereas we have long recognized that the exchange of imports and exports with our friendly world neighbors is an important factor in our own economic and political well-being as well as theirs and moreover contributes to our joint national security, and

Whereas we have regularly supported the reenactment of the Trade Agreements Act as a practical means of facilitating imports which produce the dollar exchange to pay for American exports to these foreign countries, and

Whereas the proposed Organization for Trade Cooperation will make even more productive, the objectives of the reciprocal trade agreements program and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America in 62d Annual National Convention assembled at Boston, Mass., August 12-18, 1957, do commend the administration for the manner in which it has conducted the operations of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1955 and the negotiations conducted under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and be it further

Resolved, That we urge the 85th Congress to authorize a renewal of the Trade Agreements Act for a period of not less than 3 years, to include in the legislation authorization for the Organization for Trade Cooperation and to refrain from tariff legislation which interferes with the functioning of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act.

The membership of our organization made up of men and women who have served in our Nation's Armed Forces, principally, as citizensoldiers, sailors, and airmen, having largely returned to their civilian pursuits, continue their keen interest in our national security.

They recognize the importance of maintaining our own military strength and that of our allies in deterring war against us by a strong, shrewd, potential enemy-Soviet Russia and its Communist satellites. Our membership is equally aware that the military deterrent must be matched in strength by a sound productive economy in our own land and in all those lands which have not been sucked into the Communist orbit.

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