JULY 29, 1968.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. MILLS, from the Committee on Ways and Means,
submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany S. 1578]

The Committee on Ways and Means, to whom was referred the bill (S. 1578) to authorize the appropriation for the contribution by the United States for the support of the International Union for the Publication of Customs Tariffs, having considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.

PURPOSE

The purpose of S. 1578, as passed by the Senate and reported by your committee, is to authorize the annual appropriations of such sums as may be necessary for the payment of the United States' share of the expenses of the International Union for the Publication of Customs Tariffs and of the Bureau established to carry out the functions of the Union. The authorization would be limited to 6 percent of such expenses per annum.

GENERAL STATEMENT

The International Bureau for the Publication of Customs Tariffs is a small technical organization, the sole function of which is to translate and publish customs tariffs of member countries into five official languages-English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. It was founded in 1890 by the United States and 40 other countries and has now over 70 members. Member nations are grouped for assessment purposes in seven categories, based on the value of their international trade. The United States is in the first category and until 1949 was assessed $2,233 a year. That year a protocol to the original convention

was adopted and approved by the Senate which raised the overall budget and increased the U.S. portion to $8,658.

Tariff negotiations have become even more intensified since that period, the latest of which was the Kennedy round of trade negotiations. Given the broad coverage of world trade by these negotiations and the establishment of many newly independent nations with independent tariff schedules, the work of the Bureau has expanded considerably. Your committee is informed that the Bureau's budget has become inadequate to its task. Rather than pursuing the time-consuming formal process of negotiating and ratifying a new protocol, the Bureau asked its member countries to double their contributions voluntarily. As of the end of 1966, 49 of the 75 members had done so, accounting for well over 70 percent of the total contributions to the Union. S. 1578 will permit the United States to do likewise.

Favorable reports on H.R. 12736, introduced by Mr. Boggs and identical to S. 1578 as originally introduced, were received from the Departments of State, Treasury, Commerce, and Labor. An informative report was received from the Tariff Commission. In commenting on the importance of the work of the Bureau, the Department of Commerce stated:

The work of the International Bureau is considered by the Department to be of major benefit to U.S. export expansion efforts. The International Customs Journals published by the Bureau are often the only available English translations of foreign tariffs, and their availability considerably lessens the cost to the Department of supplying tariff information in translated form to the U.S. business community and to other Government agencies. Translations of foreign tariffs are a valuable tool to U.S. firms in efforts to determine their competitive position and to locate potential markets for their products abroad. The information is also of use to Government agencies in such tasks as analyzing trade patterns and in planning trade policies.

The increase in the complexity of tariffs and the rise in the number of new nations has led to a significant increase in the workload of the International Bureau. Comprehensive changes in the tariffs of most major trading nations resulting from the recent Kennedy round of multilateral tariff negotiations not only will enhance the importance of the service rendered by the Bureau but also will greatly increase its workload. The International Bureau regularly seeks the advice of the Department regarding its publication program, thus enabling the Department to influence the coverage of the International Customs Journals along the lines felt to maximize their usefulness to the U.S. business community.

The International Customs Journals are widely used and distributed by the Department. They are of value to the Department itself, which is engaged in the continuous task of updating tariff information and preparing analyses of tariff and trade patterns and policy. The Department distributes copies of the International Customs Journals to other interested Government agencies and to each of the Department's 42 field offices, where they are made available

to firms on a loan basis. Copies are also available for sale to the public through the Federal Clearinghouse for Scientific and Technical Information. Firms with large export departments, which otherwise would place a heavy burden on the Department's facilities, are now able to maintain their own libraries of foreign customs tariffs.

For the above reasons, your committee is unanimous in recommending the enactment of S. 1578.

О

Mr. BLATNIK, from the committee of conference,
submitted the following

CONFERENCE REPORT

[To accompany S. 3710]

The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the amendment of the House to the bill (S. 3710) authorizing the construction, repair, and preservation of certain public works on rivers and harbors for navigation, flood control, and for other purposes, having met, after full and free conference, have agreed to recommend and do recommend to their respective Houses as follows:

That the Senate recede from its disagreement to the amendment of the House and agree to the same with an amendment as follows: In lieu of the matter proposed to be inserted by the House amendment insert the following:

TITLE I-RIVERS AND HARBORS

SEC. 101. That the following works of improvement of rivers and harbors and other waterways for navigation, flood control, and other purposes are hereby adopted and authorized to be prosecuted under the direction of the Secretary of the Army and supervision of the Chief of Engineers, in accordance with the plans and subject to the conditions recommended by the Chief of Engineers in the respective reports hereinafter designated. The provisions of section 1 of the River and Harbor Act approved March 2, 1945 (Public Law Numbered 14, Seventy-ninth Congress, first session), shall govern with respect to projects authorized in this title; and the procedures therein set forth with respect to plans, proposals, or reports for works of improvement for navigation or flood control and for irrigation and purposes incidental thereto, shall apply as if herein set forth in full.

NAVIGATION

Ipswich River, Massachusetts: House Document Numbered 265, Ninetieth Congress, at an estimated cost of $616,000;