ABSTRACT
Well before the Clarence Randall Commission submitted its report, it had become the view of Washington insiders, though not of most others, that few major reforms in American trade policy would be passed by the 1954 session of Congress. Foreign trade was by no means the center of every-one's attention. The liberal traders were bound to be stronger in any situation where Congressional sentiment was better reflected than it was in the House, under the fortuitous circumstances of Dan Reed's and Richard Simpson's dominance. Changes in the Buy-American Act and Reciprocal Trade renewal were the difficult bills. The bills were being drafted in the White House by an interdepartmental committee under the chairmanship of Randall with representatives from the departments of Commerce, Labor, State, Treasury, and Agriculture and other agencies. Increases in tourist exemptions were the subject of the third noncontroversial bill.
