800.51W89 U.S.S.R./98
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Eastern European Affairs (Kelley)
| [Present:] | Ambassador Troyanovsky, |
| The Secretary, | |
| Mr. Moore, and | |
| Mr. Kelley. |
Mr. Troyanovsky began the discussion by raising the question of the payment of additional interest on private credits obtained by Amtorg in the United States. He said that it was the view of his Government that the additional interest should be paid only on credits obtained from the Export-Import Bank. It was pointed out to him that unless this provision was included, a situation might arise in a few years in which the Soviet Government would not be having recourse to the Bank but would be obtaining credits privately and the United States Government would be receiving no payments on the agreed indebtedness. If, however, the Soviet Government were willing to obligate itself to pay the agreed indebtedness within a specified period, it might be possible to omit any stipulation with regard to the payment of additional interest on private credits. The Ambassador said he thought that the Soviet Government might be willing to enter into some agreement with regard to the payment of the agreed indebtedness within a certain number of years. He was informed that if such were the case, we might be willing to drop the requirement of additional interest on private credits.
The Ambassador then read over the statement prepared by the Export-Import Bank50 and raised several questions, particularly with respect to the statements that the Bank reserved for future discussion the general allocation of credits for agricultural products and manufactured goods, and that the Bank reserved the privilege of rejecting applications in particular transactions. The Ambassador thought that these statements would give Moscow the impression that the Bank intended to determine what sort of goods Amtorg should purchase in the United States. It was explained to him that Amtorg would be free to select the exporters with whom it wanted to deal and to purchase whatever goods it desired. The Bank, however, must reserve the right to disapprove a particular transaction. A situation might arise in which the granting of credit for the purchase of munitions would be unwise. Then too there might be cases in which it [Page 128] would be discovered that the manufacturer was not able to carry out his contractual obligations. It was suggested that differences with regard to the policy and procedure of the Bank might be readily settled in a conference between the Bank and Mr. Bogdanov.
The Ambassador inquired with regard to the the length of credits and he was told that the final maturity would be five years and that it was contemplated that the length of credit would vary for different categories of goods. The Ambassador indicated that he thought that the Soviet Government should obtain longer credit terms.
The Ambassador then suggested that, inasmuch as there was no longer any question of a loan but only of a credit, the Department’s memorandum of July 25 be revised, all references to the question of a loan being dropped and a brief statement with regard to the policy and procedure of the Bank included. This was agreed to and he was promised such a memorandum on Friday, August 3. He stated that he would telegraph this to his Government and he hoped to receive a reply so that another meeting could be held the middle of next week.