Word: surtax
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...ripping the dollar loose from gold and slapping a 10% surtax on imports, Richard Nixon inaugurated a global power play designed to boost U.S. exports and cut the country's worsening balance of payments deficit. Though his moves came as a shock, it appears that he acted none too soon; last week the Commerce Department reported that in July U.S. imports had exceeded exports for the fourth straight month. Still, now that some of the excitement surrounding the Nixon initiative is subsiding, a hard truth is hitting bankers, businessmen and government leaders the world over: a return...
...frenetic activity was set off by Nixon's radical moves to sever the dollar from gold and levy a 10% surtax on imports. The former started a worldwide monetary crisis, and the latter threatened to bring forth retaliatory tariffs from all of America's trading partners. With the dollar dethroned as the world's dominant currency, everybody was looking for something that could replace...
Economic Imperialism. In one sense the monetary crisis was clearly the most pressing problem. But the 10% surtax on U.S. imports foreshadowed potentially far more dangerous consequences. Protective tariffs in the early 1930s divided the world into trade blocs that brought international commerce almost to a standstill and gave a major impetus to the growth of economic imperialism in Europe and the Far East. For the past 25 years, the U.S. has championed free trade and economic internationalism. Observed the London Daily Telegraph: "The danger of Mr. Nixon's approach to the dollar's longstanding problems is that...
...surtax breaks both the letter and the spirit of the international General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. As a result, the U.S. now finds itself defending actions of a sort that it has criticized others for in the past. The 55-member GATT council is scheduled to meet in an emergency session this week to deal with the potentially explosive situation...
...justify the surtax, the U.S. has cited GATT Article 12, which allows temporary restrictions in case of severe balance of payments deficits. But the provision permits only quotas, not surtaxes. Thus, the U.S. is relying largely on a precedent set by Britain in 1964 when it posted a 15% import surtax (later reduced to 10%) and kept it for two years...