Posted on 11/23/2005 10:35:06 AM PST by BransonRevival
Amid its disarray last week, the House of Representatives did do one good deed: It included the repeal of the anti-trade Byrd Amendment as part of its budget reconciliation. The White House is also pushing repeal, so opponents are now hoping Senators (including a Republican who wants to run for President) will keep this protectionism alive.
"Byrd" is named after West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, who snuck it into a 2001 spending bill without debate. The amendment gives companies that sue for "anti-dumping" relief any duties that the government imposes on foreign competitors. U.S. companies that decline to join any dumping petition don't get to share in the Byrd droppings. In other words, sue for protection and get rewarded; keep your nose to the grindstone and get zilch. In political terms, it's a perpetual-motion protectionism machine.
It also violates global trade rules that the U.S. has agreed to observe. The World Trade Organization declared that Byrd was illegal in 2002, and it has authorized the European Union and seven other countries to impose retaliatory tariffs on American goods. This May, the EU did just that, slapping a 15% tariff on imports of 10 kinds of U.S. apparel. Canada, Mexico, and Japan have also retaliated.
According to a study by the Government Accountability Office, a mere five companies have collected half of the $1 billion in Byrd money that has been doled out since 2001. The biggest winner by far has been Ohio-based Timken Company, maker of ball bearings, which pulled down a staggering $52 million in 2004. Another Ohio company, candle-maker Lancaster Colony Corporation, got $26 million. This sure beats having to win market share.
The Commerce Department is holding almost $5 billion in Byrd money while the U.S. litigates multiple Nafta panel rulings that say U.S. anti-dumping duties against Canadian lumber violate that trade agreement. Fourteen Georgia companies got $321,000 in Byrd money in 2004, but 12 of those are lumber companies, awaiting the Canada decision.
Which brings us to the Senate, which didn't include Byrd repeal in its version of the reconciliation bill that now goes to conference. Nonetheless, 20 GOP Senators recently signed a letter to Majority Leader Bill Frist threatening to oppose final passage of reconciliation if it includes Byrd repeal once it returns from the House.
We're not surprised to see the signatures of Ohio Senators Mike DeWine and George Voinovich or Georgia's Saxby Chambliss on that letter. They're flacking for their home-state companies (see above) and no one will mistake them as Presidential timber. The really surprising name on the list, however, is George Allen, the Virginia Republican who has become the darling of some conservatives as they contemplate life after President Bush.
We wonder if Mr. Allen really knows what he's doing here. Byrd distributions in Virginia in 2004 totaled a mere $5.5 million. About $4.6 million went to Lafarge North America, and $924,000 to Titan America LLC -- both building material suppliers that stand to benefit from such protectionism as the 55% anti-dumping duty levied on Mexican cement.
In return for doing their bidding, Mr. Allen is cementing his own reputation as an opponent of free trade. No avowed protectionist has won the White House since Herbert Hoover in 1928 (and we know how that turned out), so backing Byrd doesn't look like a smart political strategy. Worse, it raises doubts about Mr. Allen's grasp of economic policy.
Modern Presidents of both parties have been ardent free-traders because they realize it is in the national interest. That's why Mr. Bush is now devoting a great deal of his time and diplomacy to advancing the Doha round of global trade talks. Byrd contradicts that policy, which is why a growing number of national business groups -- from home builders and construction companies to food processors and retailers -- are organizing to fight Byrd. They see both U.S. exports and consumers losing under Byrd to a handful of inefficient U.S. companies and their savvy Beltway lawyers. Which side are Mr. Allen and his GOP colleagues on?
So you say. Did you ever get any info on how many people actually use 7 year car loans?
What's an artificially low price?
What's wrong with the economy?
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