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Legislators from the peanut-producing states of Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina have asked the International Trade Commission to postpone its investigation of the effect on the US market of Canadian peanut butter exports. The legislators a year earlier urged the Clinton administration to limit peanut butter exports to avoid unduly depressing prices. They subsequently asked for the delay in the investigation in cognizance of the expected favorable impact of an agreeement under GATT that would impose a 155% tariff on peanut butter imports to the US that exceed 1993 levels. The new ruling would be implemented in 1995.

Midwestern farmers and politicians such as Senators Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad opened the hearing at the International Trade Commission (ITC) with attacks on Canadian policies subsidizing grain exports to the US. They said these shipments pull down local prices and pose as an economic threat to North Dakota farmers. Pres. Clinton has intervened by requesting the ITC to investigate importation of Canadian wheat and durum. A study by the US Dept. of Agriculture estimates Canadian grain sales has cost US taxpayers $600 million since 1990.

The Commerce Department has accused six countries of selling welded non-alloy steel pipes to US consumers at prices lower than those offered by domestic producers. The International Trade Commission is scheduled to assess the information and if found true, analyze the damage it has wrought on steel pipe producers in the country. The six countries are Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, Romania, Taiwan and Venezuela.

The International Trade Commission will conduct an investigation of the impact imported specialty steel has on the U.S. steel industry. U.S. Trade Representative, Bill Brock, has recommended placing restrictions on imports if evidence is found to support the allegations that subsidized European steel companies are unfairly pricing their steel in the U.S. market.

The International Trade Commission is holding hearings to decide whether the United States is being unfairly treated in connection with subsidies granted to the steel industry in Western Europe. The United States and the European Economic Community (EC) are working on a settlement that would limit exports to the United States of steel pipe and tube. American steel may accept this plan, although they still feel that it would not be equitable, in that would still give too much of the U.S. steel market to the EC.