449 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
C. Svceestions For PREVENTING Export COMBINATIONS FROM RE-STRAINING
 TRADE IN THE DotesTic MARKET.

Many suggestions were offered in reply to the second part of the
question: How to prevent export organizations from being used to
restrain trade in the domestic market.
A. few, who opposed export organizations of any kind, replied also
to this inquiry, stating that, in their opinion, the only way to prevent
restraint of trade by export organizations would be to prohibit them
entirely. Others thought that the only way would be to restrict the
membership to manufacturers who sell only kindred or noncompeting
 products. A few suggested that if the purposes for which the
organizations were formed, were properly limited, such restraint of
trade might be obviated.
Thus, a professor of economics wrote:
If they [organizations] were limited in their associated capacity to maintaining
 advertising agencies, gathering information as to trade demands, arranging
 for the standardization of products, and the adoption of means to meet
active foreign competition, and were not allowed to pool their profits or, perhaps,
 sell through the same agents or to adopt other means tending to merge
their interests, the danger might be reduced to a negligible amount.

The majority of replies pertained to organizations among competitors.
 Practically all who suggested any remedy favored control
in some manner by Federal laws or by administrative agencies.
Many of these suggested proper Government supervision. A few
thought that existing laws were sufficient to prevent restraint of trade
in the home market. Excerpts from replies suggesting remedies have
been arranged and classified under the following headings: (1) Enforcement
 of existing laws; (2) Tariff adjustment; (3) Strict limitation
 by law on activities of export combinations; (4) Federal incorporation;
 (5) Administrative Federal supervision or regulation.
(1) ENFORCEMENT OF EXISTING LAWS.—A large number of respondents
 maintained that the existing laws are entirely adequate to prevent
 restraint of trade in the domestic market. A few typical replies
are cited. ;
From a large manufacturer and exporter of beef and pork prodnets:


Do not think that export organizations of manufacturers or producers would
be used to restrain trade in the domestic market, because the laws at present in
force would prevent restraint of trade.

A large manufacturer and exporter of electrical supplies said:

The existing laws relating to the restraint of trade in the domestic market
and the powers vested in the Federal Trade Commission would seem to be
sufficient protection against any possible, but most unlikely, result of the kind
referred to in this inquiry. ]
A manufacturer of refrigerating machinery, exporting one-third
of his output, said:

The courts are now exercising a corrective function in all these attempts to
restrain trade, and the courts have, apparently, ample powers along this line.
A manufacturer of tools replied:

Do not see how such organizations could be used to restrain trade in the
domestic market, because all their effort would be directed elsewhere. If you
think they could be, the best method of performance would be to watch them
closely. The Department of Justice seems to be fully competent to do this.