U.S. Broom Makers Fear Change That Could Sweep Away Their Profits : Imports: A government agency adjusting the trade code mistakenly opened the nation’s borders to cheap brooms at the expense of U.S. corn-broom makers.

The aim was admirable: Scratch extraneous words from a tongue-twisting trade code.

But by deleting three, a government agency has mistakenly opened the nation’s borders to cheap brooms--and U.S. makers of a witch’s favorite ride fear their sturdy, corn-bristle sweepers may never stroke another dirty floor.

“It’s thrown our industry into turmoil,” says Tim Monahan of Arcola, Ill., president of Thomas Monahan Co., the world’s largest supplier of corn-broom materials. “We’ve seen them gearing up heavily in Mexico.”

“It’s absolutely unbelievable,” adds Bill Libman, who runs an Illinois corn-broom company founded by his grandfather in 1896.

The industry, which includes approximately 50 major producers making at least 20 million corn brooms a year, from whisk to floor models, says it’s been dusted by the U.S. International Trade Commission.

In an effort to simplify language, the commission changed the section that put import restrictions and costly tariffs on brooms made “wholly or partly of broom corn.”

The rules now apply only to brooms made “of broom corn.”

The change got little attention until the Customs Service was recently asked to interpret the new code. Is a broom that is 28% to 43% corn bristle subject to the government’s import limit?

The Customs Service said no.

And with that green light, foreign producers now can stuff their brooms with cheap material such as grass or vegetable fibers, ship them to the United States and market them as dependable corn brooms--even though they are not the real thing, Monahan said Wednesday.

Libman said his company makes more than 1 million brooms a year at prices ranging from $6 to $8.

Foreign brooms “are selling for less than half,” he said. “It’s not a good product. It lasts for a month and you throw it out. The consumer doesn’t know the difference.”

“We’re just a small industry,” Monahan said. “We can’t afford to educate the public.”

A trade commission official acknowledged the mistake in a Oct. 13 letter to the Customs Service, which enforces tariff policy.

“There was no intention on the commission’s part to change the tariff treatment of whisk brooms and other brooms containing broom corn,” David B. Beck wrote.

“The consequences this would have on the tariff treatment of these products were never brought to our attention . . . when we could have done something about it,” he said.

“So we understand that your hands are somewhat tied in interpreting the essential character of these products,” Beck wrote.

Some angry members of Congress are pledging to rescue U.S. corn-broom makers.

Rep. Terry Bruce, D-Ill., whose district includes Arcola, introduced a bill Tuesday to correct the error.