The Nome Nugget

Common Market Will Hike Tariff On U.S. Products
BRUSSELS, Belgium (P) - The European Common Market will increase duties as much as 100 per cent on five classes of American products July 17 in retaliation for similar U.S. tariff boosts on carpets and sheet glass.
The six-nation Common Market's Council of Ministers approved the unprecedented tariff boosts Monday at the request of Belgium, which charged the U.S. duty increases threaten industries in Belgium that involve 6,000 workers and $26 million a year.
The Common Market action will double to about 40 per cent of their value the duties on American-produced polyester, polyethylene, artificial and synthetic textiles and raise from 16 to 19 per cent the duties on American varnishes and water colors.
Officials said U.S. exports of these products to Common Market nations France, Belgium, West Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Italy total $27 million yearly. They said the difference in duty would total $5 million a year.
Under the rules of the general agreement on tariff and trade, the Common Market duties go into effect a month after the new U.S. tariff overseas becomes effective June 17.
The new U.S. tariff rates will boost duties on wilton and velvet or tapestry carpet imports from 21 to 40 per cent. The increased duties on cylinder, crown and sheet glass will range from 1.3 cents to 3.5 cents. Belgium is the leading source of U.S. imports of wilton and velvet carpet and sheet glass.
President Kennedy announced last March that he was reluctantly ordering the increases because the U.S. carpet and glass industries had been hard hit by unemployment. Kennedy said that Belgian unemployment was half the U.S. level and that Belgium enjoyed a favorable balance of payments while the United States was losing gold.