611B.9417/222
Memorandum by Mr. Roy Veatch of the Office of the Economic Adviser
Mr. Veatch placed before Mr. Yoshizawa a draft of a press statement to be released by the Department of Commerce83 containing the statistics of Philippine importations of Japanese cotton piece goods during July and August and a summary of importations for the twelve-month period ending August 1, covering the first year of the voluntary restriction by the Japanese exporters. Mr. Yoshizawa suggested certain changes in the paragraph which referred to the plans of the Japanese Exporters Association to institute new measures of control. The original draft had referred to the plan of the Exporters Association to enlarge its membership to include exporters to Hong Kong but Mr. Yoshizawa called attention to the wording of the statement from the Japanese Government, handed to Mr. Sayre September 5, and stated that it was his understanding that exporters to Hong Kong would not actually become members of the Association. Kather, the Association would be empowered under the Safeguarding of Commerce Act, to apply the regulations of the Association to exports to Hong Kong. The draft of this paragraph was revised and approved by Mr. Yoshizawa.
Mr. Yoshizawa then commented upon the inclusion in the draft release of all Japanese goods transshipped via Hong Kong as Japanese goods arriving in the Philippines under the provisions of the agreement. He wished to make it clear that he was not in a position to approve such a statement since his Government still maintained the position that it could not be held responsible for transshipments. He was of the opinion that if the matter were referred to his Government, the Foreign Office would maintain that the only statistics which should be included would be those of arrivals of goods shipped directly from Japan, totaling less than 44,000,000 square meters. Mr. Veatch said that this Government would, of course, be forced to release the statistics of arrivals of all Japanese goods but that this release would be made entirely on the responsibility of this Government and that there was no intention of asking Mr. Yoshizawa to approve the release as a whole. It was necessary only that he advise as to the language which is to be used in reference to the plans of the Japanese Exporters Association. Mr. Yoshizawa accepted this explanation and said in that event he thought it would be unnecessary for him to refer the matter to Tokyo. Mr. Veatch said that he would make it perfectly [Page 934] clear in his memorandum of conversation that Mr. Yoshizawa was not in any way expressing approval or any opinion with respect to the release as a whole.
Mr. Veatch then said that this Government also desired to make it clear that no new commitments were involved in connection with the statements to be made in the press release as drafted. Specifically, Mr. Sayre wished to have it made clear that in referring to the plans of the Japanese Exporters Association to exercise some form of control over transshipments from Hong Kong this Government was not in any way changing its position regarding the inclusion of transshipped goods in the quota accepted by the Japanese exporters. Mr. Yoshizawa said that he clearly understood this position and that he would not fail to explain it to his Government.
After agreement had been reached upon the text of the proposed press release, Mr. Yoshizawa expressed the opinion that it would be wise if this Government would not press immediately for any final determination by the two Governments of the total amount of Japanese goods to arrive in the Philippines during the second year of the agreement. He personally felt that his Government and the Japanese exporters could not justifiably urge that the goods transshipped via Hong Kong should be overlooked. His own opinion was that a reasonable solution of the matter would be acceptance by the Japanese of a limitation of 40,500,000 square meters for the second year (the second year quota of 45,000,000 less 10 percent). He felt that if this Government was willing to overlook the 3,000,000 square meters by which arrivals had exceeded the maximum quota of 49,500,000 square meters for the first year, Japanese exporters should be willing to consider the maximum quota for the first year (49,500,000 square meters) as having been exhausted. It was his opinion that the Foreign Office and the Exporters Association could be brought to this position but he would prefer to handle the matter himself and at the most propitious time rather than to have the question raised directly by the American Government.
- Not printed; it was released September 22.↩