645.116/8–2845
The Commissioner in India (Merrell) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 7.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to recent correspondence with the Department regarding the attitude of the Government of India towards the import of goods from the United States, particularly to the following despatches:72
No. 102 of June 13, 1945, entitled: “Registration of Post-War Imports of Capital Goods by the Government of India.”
No. 165 of July 26, 1945, entitled: “Transmitting Memoranda of Conversation with Secretary of the Government of India in the Supply Department* Regarding the Position of American Exports in the Indian Market and Related Subjects.”
No. 208 of August 25, 1945, entitled: “Trade Difficulties in India of the F. E. Myers and Brother Company of Ashland, Ohio.”
I now take pleasure in enclosing a copy of a note73 (No. 1 (20)–ITC/45 dated August 23, 1945, but received only on August 27, 1945) in which the Secretary to the Government of India in the Commerce Department, N.R. Pillai, has replied to some of the questions which Mills and I discussed in our conversation with him on July 19, 1945.
[Page 278]It will be noted that no mention has been made of the proposal to grant quotas for the import into India of capital goods from the United States, and I conclude that this project did not receive the approval of London. On the other hand Pillai informs me that the Government of India has modified its import policy and no longer will refrain from issuing licenses for the import of essential goods from the United States merely because similar goods are available in the sterling area. The pertinent paragraph, No. 3 in his letter, reads as follows:
“Coming now to the question of policy, our general policy hitherto, as explained in Ram Chandra’s d.o. 10 (42)–ITC/44 dated the 28th October 1944,† has been that with a view to conservation of difficult currencies such as U.S. dollars, import should not be allowed from outside the sterling area of goods which are either not essential or which are available within the sterling area. You will be interested to hear that this has now been modified and we do not insist rigidly on the second of these criteria. Where a firm in India had a pre-war trade connection with a U.S.A. supplier who normally supplied goods which are considered essential to India’s requirements, licenses are to be issued to that firm even though the goods could be obtained from the sterling area instead; it will not of course be possible to grant licenses up to the full extent of normal pre-war imports, but we hope that the licenses will be sufficient to enable U.S.A. suppliers to keep up their Indian connections.”
Copies of this despatch are being sent to the consular offices in India so that they can inform agents of American firms concerned.
[Here follows discussion of other points of the letter.]
Respectfully yours,
- None printed.↩
- should be corrected to read “Commerce Department”. [Footnote in the original.]↩
- Not printed.↩
- Although a summary was sent to the Department in a cable at the time and the text was forwarded later, an additional copy is attached for ready reference [not printed]. Pertinent sentence reads: “… imports should not be allowed from outside the sterling area of goods which are either not essential or which are obtainable in the sterling area.” [Footnote in the original.]↩