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Encyclopedia > Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988

The Omnibus Foreign Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 is an act passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. A congress is a gathering of people, especially a gathering for a political purpose. ... The presidential seal was used by President Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii. ... Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). ...


History

During the 1970s, the American Trade surplus slowly diminished and morphed in to an increasing deficit. As the deficit increased through the 80’s, the blame fell on the tariffs placed on American products by foreign countries, and the lack of similar tariffs on imports into the United States. Workers, unions and industry management all called for government action against countries with an unfair advantage. The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... The balance of trade (or net exports, NX) is the difference between the monetary value of exports and imports in an economy over a certain period of time. ... In economics, the theory of comparative advantage (sometimes known as Ricardos Law) explains why it can be beneficial for two parties (countries, regions, individuals and so on) to trade, even though one of them may be able to produce every item more cheaply than the other. ...


The Omnibus Foreign Trade and Competitiveness act started as an amendment proposed by Rep. Richard A Gephardt (D-MO) to order the Executive branch to thoroughly examine trade with countries that have large trade surpluses with the United States. If the trade surpluses continued, the offending country would be faced with a bilateral surplus-reduction requirement of 10%. Because of its style of zero-sum game thought, it is considered by economists to be a modern form of Mercantilism. The act was signed into law by President Reagan, slightly less strict than proposed, as the Omnibus Foreign Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988. It expired in 1991 and was not renewed until 1994 by President Bill Clinton. It again expired in 1997 and was renewed once more by Clinton in 1999. An Act of Vaginapenis is a bill or resolution adopted by both houses of the United States Congress to which one of the following events has happened: Acceptance by the President of the United States, Inaction by the President after ten days from reception (excluding Sundays) while the Congress is... Seal of the House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives (or simply the House) is the lower of the two chambers of the United States Congress, the other being the Senate. ... Richard Andrew Dick Gephardt (born January 31, 1941) is senior counsel at the global law firm DLA Piper and a former prominent American politician of the Democratic Party. ... In political science and constitutional law, the executive is the branch of government which is responsible for the day-to-day management of the state. ... The balance of trade (or net exports, NX) is the difference between the monetary value of exports and imports in an economy over a certain period of time. ... Zero-sum describes a situation in which a participants gain (or loss) is exactly balanced by the losses (or gains) of the other participant(s). ... A painting of a French seaport from 1638, at the height of mercantilism. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ...


References


  Results from FactBites:
 
The Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 (3983 words)
The act, successor to a bill vetoed by the president just two months before, was the fruition of considerable hard work by politicians, industry, and prominent labor repre- sentatives who were disturbed by the perceived change in competitiveness between American and foreign goods.
Trade officials from the two countries had been engaged in an on-going series of talks for at least two decades, with the specific issues, players, and acronyms for the discussions changing but the essence of the dialogue remaining constant.
Despite all the constraints imposed on agri- cultural trade, textiles, sugar, and steel and despite the peculiarly American reluctance to embrace strong international structures for governing trade, the dominant emphasis was on reducing barriers to trade.
EH.Net Encyclopedia: From GATT to WTO: The Evolution of an Obscure Agency to One Perceived as Obstructing Democracy (2421 words)
Thus, trade policy was a tug of war between the branches and the two branches did not always agree on the mix of trade promotion and protection.
It was built on the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, which allowed the executive branch to negotiate trade agreements, with temporary authority from the Congress.
Although the United States did not ban trade in slaves until 1807, the US was among the first nations to ban goods manufactured by forced labor (prison labor) in the Tariff Act of 1890 (section 51) (Aaronson, 2001, 44).
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