611.60H31/145: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Yugoslavia (Lane)
46. Your November 4, 7 p.m., 324, November 8, noon, 328, November 9, 3 [6] p.m. from Rome.22 With respect to automobiles and trucks, you should indicate that we cannot, in view of our policy in these matters, put ourselves in the position of accepting a share (such as 30%) which is not equivalent to the proportion supplied by this country in a representative period. The same applies to other important articles on the control list, for which you should request representative period quotas.
You may in your discretion as to timing inform the Yugoslav authorities that if they are unable to give us quotas based upon our share in representative periods, any improvements, approaching such quotas as closely as possible, would of course be appreciated but could not be considered as satisfying the requirements of our policy.
For your information. Unless the quotas conform to the representative period basis, we would not wish to enter into any exchange of notes which could be construed as constituting an agreement in derogation of that policy.
Any question of transferability would arise only in respect of items of which the United States is a minor supplier and which might advantageously be included in a lump sum quota.
We would expect that unused portions of quotas on automobiles as well as on other products of particular interest to us would be carried over to the next period or periods. This is of course especially important in the case of seasonal items.
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