THE TRADE AGREEMENTS ESCAPE CLAUSE.

This paper is concerned with the role of the escape clause in the trade agreements program, and more particularly with the interpretation of the escape clause during the first six years of its general use. The function of the escape clause in the trade agreements program has been to compromise the conflict between the need for freer international trade and the desire to maintain the status of domestic industries. Even when the advantages of the international division of labor are well understood, nations are unwilling to sign away unconditionally their right to increase protection in the event of unforeseen inroads on domestic markets. Some kind of escape provision is, therefore, almost an inevitable feature of any durable international agreement to reduce trade barriers. The escape clause was not an original ingredient of the U.S. trade agreements program, but was developed with experience. On the other hand, it was established from the very beginning that the line of compromise between freer international trade and the security of domestic industries would be drawn very much in favor of the latter.