800.602/10–1845
The United States Political Adviser for Germany (Murphy) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:15 p.m.]
802. The fourteenth meeting of the Coordinating Committee took place on October 16 with the French member presiding.
The Committee first considered the proposed law prohibiting cartels and excessive concentration of economic power in Germany, the full text of which was contained in my 735, October 10, 1 p.m.42 The suggestion of the American member to withhold final approval of the law pending its consideration by the State Department was denied on the grounds that the law had been unanimously approved in the Economic Directorate and that it was believed to be thoroughly in accord with Washington policy.
In the discussion, however, in spite of the law’s having been approved by the Russian member of the Economic Directorate, General Sokolovsky criticized it and suggested it be amended to include specific [Page 1564] criteria for designation industrial concerns subject to the law. He thought that any firm whose output exceeded a definite fixed percentage share of the total German production of any commodity or whose annual turnover of employed exceeded some definite figure should come under the operation of the law. The British member felt that the setting of such specific criteria would be difficult. General Clay agreed with the Russian criticism and proposed that firms whose production accounted for 10% of total German production of any commodity, or whose annual turnover exceeded 25,000,000 RM or which employed over 3,000 employees be subject to the operation of the law.
It was finally decided to return the law to the Directorates for further study and the inclusion of as precise criteria as could be agreed upon. If these could not be speedily agreed upon, then a legal text of the present draft was to be prepared to be followed by more specific administrative regulations.
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- Not printed.↩