On April 7, 1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower requested that Congress extend for one year the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, a measure which had originally been passed in 1934.
Under this act and its subsequent extensions, the President was authorized to negotiate agreements with other countries for tariff reduction.
In his message of April 7, the President called for a commission to study U.S. foreign economic policy in general.
In order to limit the number of witnesses before the Commission, Randall sent out 15,000 letters asking for written statements from individual industries, labor unions, etc.
The Commission staff, composed of specialists on various aspects of foreign economic policy, digested the written testimony and information provided by the Department of State, Department of Agriculture, and other agencies, in preparing 800 pages of staff papers upon which the Commission Report was based.