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OCR
— page five POST SCRIPTUM + “he preceding report was already written when President Truman vetoed the suggestion of the Tarriff Commission, to apply the "escape clause" to the imports of garlic into the United States. This unprecedented measure of veto was largely hailed as a first step in the direction of freerer trade with Europe, While its symptomatic importance should not be underestimated, it has on the other hand created among certain Eurépesn bussinessmen a feeling of opti~ mism which as yet is by no means justified. Because the issue of garlic is very sectional indeeds It is rightly pointed out, that America produces garlic mainly in California, while it is widely consumed in the East. So far the California garlic has been in its output below the real needs of the market and has demanded the escape clause only to keep a price high above the world market. Furthermore garlic is produced in a heavily Republican section of the country = hence there is nú immediate Demoeratic interest attacjked to satisfy the request of certain political opponents. At the seme time political interests were largely in favour of a veto, since the garlic consumers are mostly the foreign borne especially Italian democratic voters of the Eastern cities, who are interested in low prices, and who are happy to see by the same token a meusure taken, favouring their old country of Italy, which is the main exe porter of garlic towards the United States. Hence while noting the
