Foreign Trade: Man for the Job

The job calls for a man skilled in negotiation, experienced in all of the subtleties of U.S. foreign policy, knowledgeable about the world’s economy and acquainted with the technicalities of tariff-law “escape clauses.” “I defy the Administration to find anyone of sufficient prestige who knows the subject,” declared an old Government hand some weeks ago. As it turned out, the man who made that statement was the one who last week got the job: former Secretary of State Christian A. Herter, 67, named by President Kennedy to become Special Representative for Trade Negotiations.

The post was created only last October, when Congress finally passed the liberalized foreign trade law, which is the Kennedy Administration’s most notable legislative achievement to date. In naming Republican Herter, President Kennedy said that he would “be accorded a central role in the formulation of trade policy.” Herter will be top U.S. negotiator at international trade conferences, handle day-by-day tariff matters, head a Cabinet-level organization of foreign trade advisers to the President, and will be expected to look out for the welfare of U.S. business even as the U.S. lowers its tariffs so as to compete with Europe’s burgeoning Common Market.

The position is one of vast opportunity. It is also, as Herter himself said, one of great difficulty.