C&EN: TODAY'S HEADLINES - U.S. Unveils Plan To Eliminate Tariffs Globally

CHERYL HOGUE

Import duties on chemicals, pharmaceuticals, environmental technologies, and other highly traded goods would be eliminated worldwide no later than 2010, under a plan the Bush Administration announced last week.

The proposal also aims to lower tariffs on other consumer and industrial goods by 2010 and to eliminate these duties by 2015, says U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick. He will present the plan to the World Trade Organization in early December. The U.S. proposal is intended to influence WTO discussions, scheduled for early 2003, on improving market access for industrial and consumer goods, which likely would include tariff reduction or elimination.

U.S. chemical makers endorsed the Bush Administration plan. In 2001, the U.S. industry exported $80 billion worth of chemicals that were subject to $3.9 billion in tariffs, according to the American Chemistry Council. Tariffs as high as 63% “make U.S. chemical products more expensive for foreign customers and effectively close some markets to U.S. goods,” ACC says.

Isi A. Siddiqui, vice president for trade and biotechnology at CropLife America, a trade association of pesticide makers, says the crop protection industry now pays about $1 billion a year in tariffs on its global annual trade of $16 billion to $17 billion. Mark Grayson, spokesman for Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, says tariffs on brand-name drugs can run as high as 65%.