Administration seeks to eliminate tariffs on manufactured goods

WASHINGTON-- The Bush administration, trying to energize flagging global trade talks, announced Tuesday that it will seek the total elimination of all tariffs on manufactured goods over the next 13 years.

The proposal, which was unveiled by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and Commerce Secretary Don Evans at a news conference, would phase out border taxes on nearly $6 trillion in annual world trade in nonagricultural goods. The taxes would be cut in a two-step process.

By 2010, all tariffs that are currently below 5 percent would be eliminated and all tariffs currently higher than 5 percent would have to be capped at no higher than 8 percent. Then, over the next three years, these remaining tariffs would be progressively lowered until they were eliminated in 2015.

The administration said the effort would not only benefit exporters of American manufactured goods but also American consumers.

"Our proposal would turn every corner store in America into a duty-free shop for working families," Zoellick said. "This historic proposal would benefit the average American family of four with an extra $1,600 a year, while also removing high foreign tariff barriers on more than $670 billion in U.S. industrial and consumer goods exports."

The package will be presented as the U.S. negotiating position at trade talks being held in Geneva among the members of the World Trade Organization.

The U.S. proposal is likely to be opposed by U.S. industries such as textiles, who have lobbied Congress aggressively over the years for high tariffs as a protection against a flood of cheaper foreign imports.

But other American manufacturers expressed support for the U.S. proposal, noting that while the United States has very low tariffs on most manufactured goods, American companies face very high tariffs in many developing countries.

The EU has made its own proposal for the world trade talks that foresees targeted cuts of tariffs on manufactured goods rather than total elimination.

Gonzalez said the EU's offer may be "less beautiful, but perhaps a little more realistic," than the U.S. plan.