823.24/916: Telegram
The Ambassador in Peru ( Norweb ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:10 p.m.]
1178. Reference Department’s circular airgram Aug. 23, 7 p.m.69 and circular telegram August 31.70 In principle the Embassy is in complete accord with removing restrictions as quickly as possible on the exportation of American merchandise not in short supply. Any alteration in the Decentralization Plan at the present time is felt to be contingent upon whether or not available tonnage is sufficient to handle all requests made by Peruvian importers for non-allocated commodities. (For the Department’s information it is believed, considering the restrictions imposed by the long list of commodities in short supply, that Peru is not likely to be able to utilize more than roughly 35,000 tons of shipping per quarter including project tonnage.)
The building up of a backlog of cargo such as occurred under the old general license procedure should be avoided by all means. If available tonnage is sufficient to prevent the accumulation of such a backlog then the Embassy favors the adoption of Alternative Plan [Page 279] III given in the Department’s airgram. It is understood that there would be published a specific list of those articles under general license. Due to the complexity of the CMP71 plan it is now frequently a matter of interpretation whether an article is or is not under allocation.
For allocated commodities it will be even more important that OEW72 refuse to grant licenses within [without?] important [Import?] Recommendations or the previous approval of the Country Agency73 and the Embassy. Reasonable satisfactory consignee control can be exercised through shipping manifests and the cooperation of local Superintendent of Customs.
The Embassy will report further upon completion of conversations with the Peruvian authorities from whom no serious objections are anticipated.