The Webb-Pomerene Act exempts manufacturing associations formed for the purpose of export trade from the Sherman Antitrust Act. By combining together in export associations, small firms can compete with foreign cartels. A current move is to extend the act to include the service sector.
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References
1.
Wall Street Journal (29 September 1980), p. 6.
2.
Federal Trade Commission, Economic Report—Webb-Pomerene Associations: 50-Year Review (June 1967), p. 21.
3.
Ibid., pp. 8–10.
4.
Ibid., pp. 23–24.
5.
HodgesLuther H.Jr., under secretary of commerce; Statement before the International Finance Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs (17 September 1979), p. 8.
6.
FTC, op. cit., p. 42. An FTC study (Webb-Pomerene Associations: Ten Years Later (November 1978), p. 16) suggests that the 50-Year Review may have actually overstated Webb-assisted exports by reporting on total member exports if the association provided a minimum of one function or service, regardless of the extent of benefit to the export sales themselves.
7.
FTC, 50-Year Review, p. 24.
8.
Ibid., p. 32.
9.
Ibid., p. 44.
10.
WeilFrank A., assistant secretary of commerce for industry and trade, Report before the National Commission for the Review of Antitrust Laws and Procedures (27 July 1978), p. 3.
11.
Hodges, op. cit. p. 4.
12.
Ibid., op. cit., p. 6.
13.
Weil, op. cit., pp. 10–11.
14.
ReinhardtHall, International Competition For The Mideast Construction Market (New York, May 1978), p. 1.
15.
Engineering News Record (29 November 1979), p. 26.
16.
National Constructors Association, Position Paper: Webb-Pomerene Act (23 July 1979), p. 1.
17.
Engineering News Record (29 November 1979), p. 32.
18.
Ibid., pp. 27, 29, 32, 37.
19.
YoungAlexander K., The Sogo Shosha: Japan's Multinational Trading Companies (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1979), p. 4.
20.
The objective was formulated after phone interviews with the following: Senator Adlai Stevenson, chairman, the Senate Banking Subcommittee on International Finance, Mr. Carl Hebener, the Federal Trade Commission, Mr. John H. Shenefield, chairman, National Commission for the Review of Antitrust Laws and Procedure, the Justice Department, and Mr. John Wagner, director, Foreign Business Practices Division, U.S. Department of Commerce.
