Extract From Department of State “Bulletin,” January 29, 1951

Departmental Organization’ for Coordination of Country and Commodity Requirements *

1. Establishment of Departmental Organization

a. To carry out the Department’s responsibilities resulting from the Defense Production Act of 1950 for the review and coordination of country and commodity requirements for foreign economic programs to be submitted to United States Government allocating agencies, the functions and organizational arrangements indicated below are established in the Department, effective this date.

b. The Department of State will not establish or determine individual commodity or country requirements, but will review such requirements data developed by other agencies to advise them on foreign policy considerations and will expedite priorities for programs deemed vital to the accomplishment of United States foreign policy objectives.

2. Relationship to Existing Components

The officials and units added to existing organizations shall function as integral components of the Department pursuant to their terms of reference and those of other components of the Department as prescribed below and in the Manual of Regulations and Procedures, Volume II, Organization.

[Page 1227]

3. Responsibilities of Economic Affairs Area

The Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs shall:

a.
Screen, assemble and correlate commodity information from the regional bureaus, the Bureau of United Nations Affairs and the Office of Director, International Security Affairs to compare export commodity requirements with available supplies for export.
b.
Maintain liaison for guidance purposes with claimant agencies on over-all export requirements and represent the Department on advisory committees of the allocating agency (or agencies) to advise on foreign policy considerations.

4. Responsibilities of the Regional Bureaus

a. Each regional bureau shall:

(1)
Obtain recommended requirements by commodity and by country and review such for foreign policy considerations and in the light of other information available to it.
(2)
Adjust and assemble commodity requirements for the geographic area for presentation to the intra-departmental Export Requirements Committee, and provide a member of that committee.
(3)
Adjust requirements by commodity and by country as necessary because of over-all adjustments made by the Export Requirements Committee and the allocating agency (or agencies).
(4)
Maintain liaison as necessary with the appropriate offices of claimant agencies to assure consideration of departmental views in the formulation and implementation of export requirements by such agencies.

b. There may be established in each regional bureau a Requirements Officer to supervise or coordinate the performance of the above functions and to provide bureau representation for requirements committee work.

5. Responsibilities of Bureau of United Nations Affairs

The Bureau of United Nations Affairs shall be responsible for the functions prescribed in paragraph 4, above, insofar as they are applicable to programs with which it is concerned. The Bureau of United Nations Affairs shall be represented on the Export Requirements Committee to advise on the relationship of particular programs to the operations of United Nations agencies and the appropriate utilization of the facilities of these agencies.

6. Responsibilities of the Director, International Security Affairs

The Director, International Security Affairs shall:

a.
Maintain liaison with the Economic Cooperation Administration on items other than military end use items and with the Department of Defense on military end use items, concerning requirements for materials under mutual defense and international security programs.
b.
Appoint a representative to the Export Requirements Committee, provide information to this committee on materials requirements for military production in countries with military production programs [Page 1228] and make such representations as it considers appropriate with respect to other requirements which appear to it essential for support of defense efforts abroad.

7. Establishment of Export Requirements Committee (ERC)

a. An intra-departmental Export Requirements Committee is established with representation from each regional bureau, the Office of Director, International Security Affairs, the Intelligence and Economic areas, the Bureau of United Nations Affairs, and other offices as required. The Chairman of this Committee shall be appointed by the Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs.

b. This Committee shall:

(1)
Examine information on materials requirements and advise the Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs on amounts of commodities for each geographic area and total export requirements.
(2)
Review all foreign requirements except those established by the Director, International Security Affairs for (a) military end use items, and (b) for materials directly required for military production if the appropriate allocating agency grants without further review production priorities or export quotas for requirements so established.
(3)
Advise (a) the Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs on departmental positions to be taken by the Department’s representatives on committees advisory to the Office of Defense Mobilization, the Defense Production Administration or other mobilization control, programming, or allocating agencies, (b) the economic area in its representations to the allocating agency (or agencies) and to the claimant agencies on total export quotas, and (c) the Requirements Officers of regional bureaus in their representations to claimant agencies on country export quotas.

c. The Director, International Security Affairs shall provide the committee with such information concerning requirements mentioned in 7b (2) (b) above as needed to facilitate its work.

d. If agreement is not reached by this committee, the matter shall be immediately referred to the Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs for decision. If decision can not be reached at the Assistant Secretary level, the matter shall be referred to the Under Secretary in accordance with the prescribed action process.

e. Secretariat services shall be provided by the Committee Secretariat.

  1. Effective January 29, 1951. [Footnote in the source text.]