611.0031 Executive
Committee/9–2545
Memorandum by the Acting
Secretary of State to President Truman
47
Washington, September 21,
1945.
Subject: Future International
Controls on Short Supply Items
There is submitted herewith for your approval as a basis for
discussion with other governments a document regarding policy which
should be followed in the transition period in respect of the
international control of items in short supply.
It is recommended that in cases in which it is necessary to maintain
such controls for purposes of stability, reconversion or
rehabilitation, the responsibility therefor be transferred as
quickly as practicable from the Anglo-American Combined Boards48 to international commodity committees composed of
representatives of principal producing and consuming countries.49 This policy, if adopted, may require legislation to
extend authority to control imports into the United States, to make
public purchases abroad, and to control and to give priority
assistance to exports from the United States of the commodities
involved should existing authority expire before the end of the
transition.
[Page 131]
[Annex]
Memorandum From the Executive Committee on
Economic Foreign Policy, Committee on Wartime Trade
Controls
United States Policy During the Transition
Period With Respect to Short Supply Items
- 1.
- The established foreign economic policy of this government
is to remove all wartime controls of international trade and
government participation in such trade as rapidly as is
consistent with the objectives of this government for an
orderly economic transition from war to peace. These
objectives include:
-
a.
- Prompt conversion of the economies of the world so
as to maximize the production of goods and services
required for domestic and foreign needs.
-
b.
- Stabilization of the general level of
prices.
-
c.
- Equitable distribution of available
supplies.
- 2.
- A continuation of some wartime controls may be required if
the above objectives are to be attained. Control should be
limited to products in global short supply i.e. those which,
in the absence of such control, would be subject to
substantial world price increases. Control should be further
minimized by limitation to products which are relatively
important to stabilization, reconversion or rehabilitation
programs. A tentative list of commodities likely to meet
these conditions is appended.
- 3.
- The following procedure is recommended:
-
a.
- A committee should be created for each commodity
for which control is continued and should be
composed of representatives of the countries which
are the principal producers or consumers of such
commodity. Where Combined Board committees already
exist they should be utilized and appropriately
enlarged. These committees should in general
exercise the functions now performed by the Combined
Boards themselves.
-
b.
- The coordination of the American representatives
on the committees concerned with food products
should be centered in the Department of Agriculture
and on other committees in the War Production Board
or in such other United States government agency as
may later be established to take over the relevant
functions of the agency. These agencies should be
charged with the responsibility for consulting with
all other interested departments and agencies of
this government on issues arising in the Committees.
The actions of the representatives of the
responsible agencies should conform to the foreign
policy of the United States.
-
c.
- Each commodity committee should be liquidated as
soon as the conditions leading to its establishment,
as stated in paragraph 2, have ceased to exist or as
soon as it becomes apparent that the price increase
[Page 132]
which
would follow the removal of control is necessary and
appropriate to bring about the long term adjustment
of supply and demand requisite to the restoration of
a competitive market.
-
d.
- The Combined Boards as such should be terminated
as quickly as practicable and in any case should
terminate their functions immediately so far as each
commodity is concerned for which a commodity
committee is established. However, until the new
committees assume responsibility in their respective
fields, or whenever the prospective duration of the
continued control does not justify or makes
impractical the creation of new committees, the
Combined Boards should be utilized to perform the
necessary functions of control.
- 4.
- The effectiveness of the controls contemplated above
depends upon the continuation of authority to control
imports into the United States, to make public purchases
abroad, and to control and to give priority assistance to
exports from the United States of the commodities involved.
Steps should, therefore, be taken to extend such authority
if it should otherwise expire prior to the end of the
transition period.
- 5.
- For illustrative purposes only a tentative list of
products for which controls may be required follows. Such a
list may be enlarged or reduced when supply-requirements
analyses, now almost completed, have been made.
- 1.
- Rubber
- 2.
- Tin
- 3.
- Bovine hides and leather
- 4.
- Newsprint
- 5.
- Lead
- 6.
- Antimony
- 7.
- Coal
- 8.
- Manila, sisal, henequen, hemp and their
manufactures
- 9.
- Jute and jute products
- 10.
- Fats and oils
- 11.
- Sugar
- 12.
- Meat
- 13.
- Canned and dried fish
- 14.
- Food and feed grains and proteins
- 15.
- Rice
- 16.
- Cocoa
