Industry trade advisory program revamped

Abstract

The chemical industry is marshaling its trade expertise to participate in a revised and restructured trade consultation program with government. For a few old trade hands in the industry, the new program will seem like business as usual. But not quite. This small, hard core of trade-wise chemical executives served in a similar industry-to-government trade advisory program, set up by the Trade Act of 1974, during the hectic days of the Tokyo round of multilateral trade negotiations. Despite the emphasis placed on nontariff barriers in these negotiations, the big issues for the chemical industry in those days were tariffs and the elimination of American Selling Price. Now, however, the issues that chemical industry trade experts will have to grapple with will be different and much more diverse. And the trade experts will have to do it within a restructured advisory system. At the heart of the new system, as they were previously, will be the ...