Helsinki Legation Files: 511.2
The Executive Secretary of the Advisory Committee on Requirements (Garrett) to the Director of the Office of International Trade of the Department of Commerce (Blaisdell)1
ACR Program Determination No. 118
The U.S. Export policy toward Finland has been established as follows:
Class IA Items: All export license applications involving Class IA items for shipment to Finland shall be referred to the R Procedure [Page 89] Subcommittee for review. Simultaneously, the R Procedure Subcommittee shall attempt to classify those Class IA items clearly of a character for which some shipment to Finland ought to be permitted. As a result of this classification, there shall be produced as soon as possible a “List of Class IA Exceptions for Finland”, subject to such revisions, clarification and specification as shall be found advisable and appropriate in the light of the continuing review of Class IA items and future conditions. This list of Class IA Exceptions for Finland shall be made available to ECA for use in arranging parallel modifications of exports by participating countries to Finland.
Cases involving Class IA items shall generally be denied for shipment to Finland, except for the limited number of exceptions as above, which later may be approved for shipment to Finland when they meet the conditions and criteria set forth below.
Class IB Items: All export license applications involving Class IB items for shipment to Finland shall continue to be referred to the R Procedure Subcommittee for review. The Subcommitte shall make a special effort to formulate export programs and/or licensing criteria in order that actions on groups of cases may be facilitated through delegation of authority to the OIT. In formulating such export programs and/or licensing criteria, and in recommending actions on individual cases, the Subcommittee shall give consideration to the conditions and criteria set forth below. However, these conditions and criteria shall be construed more liberally in the case of Class IB items than in the case of Class IA items.
Class II Items: Special effort shall be made by the R Procedure Subcommittee to establish the official definition and composition of the Class II List in order that export license applications involving these items may be handled, in so far as practicable, through open licensing, export programs, or licensing criteria with appropriate delegation of authority to the OIT. Meanwhile, cases involving Class II items shall continue to be handled on an ad hoc basis.
Conditions and Criteria: In general, the R Procedure Subcommittee [Page 90] shall use the following conditions and criteria for arriving at recommendations for appropriate action on export license applications involving Class IA, IB and II items, with the understanding that the degree of applicability shall vary in accordance with the gradations of strategic importance of the items involved:
- a.
- That the materials or commodities will be for non-military, domestic use by reliable concerns.
- b.
- That the materials or commodities are clearly essential to the basic economy of Finland.
- c.
- That the quantities do not exceed minimum, short-term requirements.
- d.
- With respect to short supply items, that the U.S. supply situation and ECA country requirements are not impaired; or else, that overriding considerations of foreign policy are properly certified in accordance with Section 112(g) of ECA Act. Furthermore, that U.S. foreign commitments (viz., occupied areas, etc.) and requirements of other friendly countries are not seriously impaired, except where overriding considerations of foreign policy exist.
Inquiries to Screening Committee in Helsinki: The R Procedure Subcommittee shall determine when inquiries in appropriate cases (or with respect to groups of cases where export programs, licensing criteria or open licensing are involved) shall be forwarded to the U.S. Legation Screening Committee in Helsinki for advice.
Procedures for dispatching airgrams to the Screening Committee in Helsinki and receiving replies therefrom shall be formulated by the OIT and the State Department, subject to approval of the R Procedure Subcommittee.
Reparations: The R Procedure Subcommittee shall review all cases involving reparation items classified as IA, IB, or II for delivery by Finland to the USSR under the general presumption against the approval of such items, with or without further manufacture, for transmittal through Finland to the USSR as reparation items, if such items would not be licensed for shipment direct to the USSR.
The R Procedure Subcommittee shall also review all cases involving Capital Equipment or Facilities classified as IA, IB, or II with which end products are to be manufactured, or processed for delivery as reparations to the USSR, under the general presumption against approval for shipment to Finland, if such manufactured or processed end products would not be approved for direct shipment from the U.S. to USSR.
- The source
text was transmitted as an enclosure to instruction 14, March 16, to
Helsinki, not printed. A copy of instruction 14 is included in the
Department of State’s Central Files in file 840.50 Recovery/3–1649,
but none of the enclosures is there retained.
The decisions presented in this document were proposed as recommendations by the Operating Committee of the Advisory Committee on Requirements following its meeting on February 7. At that meeting, the Operating Committee considered the recommendations of the Department of State summarized in Current Economic Developments, No. 187, January 31, p. 75. ACR Document No. 16, February 14, which was also transmitted to Helsinki as an enclosure to instruction 14, recorded the recommendations of the Operating Committee on export policy vis-à-vis Finland at its February 7 meeting. There was a consensus of the Operating Committee in favor of a liberalization of export policy to Finland and the development of techniques for the accelerated handling of export applications for that country. It was recognized that the recommendation represented a calculated risk with respect to certain strategically important classes of items. For the reasons advanced by the Department of State, however, it was felt that the risk was less important than the advantages to be gained. A few Committee members would have preferred to have withheld the modification of the policy with respect to Finland until there had been a full review of the matter by the National Security Council or the Cabinet.
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