762A.0221/4–1951
The Chairman of the Intergovernmental Study Group
on Germany (Gainer) to
the Chairman of the NATO
Council of Deputies (Spofford)1
secret
[London,] April 2, 1951.
In the communiqué on Germany published after their Conference in New
York in September, 1950, the Foreign Ministers of France, the United
Kingdom and the United States of America announced that they had
agreed that a review of the Prohibited and Limited Industries
Agreement should be undertaken in the light of the developing
relationship with the Federal Republic. This review has been
completed; and the three Governments have authorised their High
Commissioners in Germany to sign on their behalf an Agreement
concerning Industrial Controls which will replace the Prohibited and
Limited Industries Agreement. My colleagues and I consider that it
would be of interest to the Governments’ members of the N.A.T.O. to
receive in advance of signature, information upon the principal
provisions of the new Agreement. I accordingly send you enclosed
within this letter a statement of the changes in existing controls
which will be effected.
[Page 1394]
2. The Agreement will be signed and come into force on the 3rd April;
and the text will be published in the course of that day. I should
be grateful if the information contained in the enclosed statement
could be regarded as confidential until the text of the new
Agreement has been published. The information contained in paragraph
three of the statement, which is based upon instructions to the High
Commission, should remain confidential after publication of the new
Agreement.
Annex A
Statement Prepared by the Intergovernmental
Study Group on Germany
secret
[London, April 2, 1951.]
In the course of their meeting in New York in September, 1950,
the Foreign Ministers of France, the United Kingdom and the
United States of America, agreed to instruct the
Intergovernmental Study Group on Germany to examine the
Agreement on Prohibited and Limited Industries of 1949 and to
submit recommendations for its revision.
2. The Study Group duly completed its examination and submitted
recommendations to the three Governments. The latter have
approved these recommendations, and authorised their respective
High Commissioners in Germany to sign on their behalf an
Agreement concerning Industrial Controls, which will replace the
Prohibited and Limited Industries Agreement. The effect of the
new Agreement will be to modify in the following respects the
restrictions at present in force in the French, United Kingdom,
and United States Areas of Occupation in Germany:—
- (a)
- The restrictions upon primary aluminum, synthetic
ammonia, chlorine and styrene, the size, speed or
tonnage of merchant ships built or otherwise acquired by
Germany, and the machine tools listed in Annex B of the
Prohibited and Limited Industries Agreement, will be
removed.
- (b)
- The limitations on the capacities of the steel,
electric arc and high frequency furnace steel, ball and
roller bearings, and shipbuilding industries will
continue in effect, although there will be some
modification in the details of control of these
capacities.
- (c)
- The limitation on the production of crude steel will
be maintained at 11.1 million tons per annum, but the
High Commission will authorise production outside this
limitation where this will facilitate the defence
effort, as at present.
- (d)
- The prohibitions on the production of synthetic rubber
and oil will be removed, but capacity will be limited.
Rehabilitation and use of the synthetics plants will be
permitted only to the extent that the additional
consumption of coal and coke necessary for the
production contemplated does not affect the satisfaction
of the needs of the solid fuel importing
countries.
- (e)
- The existing control over the production of electronic
valves will be modified.
[Page 1395]
3. Confidential. The three Governments
have agreed that the production of war material will as at
present continue to be prohibited, save under license of the
High Commission, which may grant licenses for the manufacture in
the Federal Republic for order of North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation countries of certain materials of minor security
significance, which are at present prohibited.
4. The three Governments have also agreed that the Agreement
concerning Industrial Controls shall be reviewed at the request
of any two Governments parties to the Agreement and in any event
not later than 31st December, 1951. Except as may be
subsequently agreed, prohibitions imposed by the Agreement shall
remain in force until the peace settlement; and limitations
until 1st January, 1953, or the peace settlement, whichever is
the earlier.
