Mr. Dillon said that the British
proposal raises a basic question to which our Government must give careful
study. We had, he said, been considering the advisability of a review of the
Cocom lists in the light of existing
criteria but the British proposal implied a fundamental change in criteria.
Whereas strategic controls heretofore have been based on the assumption that
the West should cut down USSR availabilities of copper which is used for
civilian as well as military purposes, the British proposal is based on the
theory that making copper available to the USSR for more consumer goods is
in our long-range as well as short-range interest.
[Enclosure]
3
London, October 12,
1957.
CONTROL OF COPPER WIRE
Her Majesty’s Government have given careful thought to the views
expressed in the Memorandum of the United States Government
[Page 503]
of the 20th of June, 1957, on
the control of the exports of copper wire to the Soviet bloc.
This matter is of considerable importance to the United Kingdom both for
her own economy and because of her Commonwealth interests. In
particular, trade in copper is of great importance to the Federation of
Rhodesia and Nyasaland, more especially as the market price of raw
copper has fallen by more than half in the last eighteen months (from
£437 to under £200 per ton) and has for some time stood below the level
to which the Rhodesian budget is geared.
It is apparent that, whilst both Governments agree on the importance of
maintaining strategic controls for as long as they are shown to be
necessary, there is a difference of opinion on the applicability of the
criteria by which materials are judged to have sufficient strategic
value to justify an embargo on their export to the Sino-Soviet bloc.
In the opinion of Her Majesty’s Government, the existing strategic
criteria, under which a wide range of goods and materials is subject to
embargo, do not accord with the lines of current NATO strategic thinking and planning
assumptions. In their view, the time has come for a review of these
criteria with the object of modifying them to accord with the
requirements of current strategic planning. In the light of the outcome
of this review both Governments could determine for which goods and
materials an embargo was, in their opinion, now justified. An
appropriate recommendation could thereafter be submitted to the
Coordinating Committee.
Her Majesty’s Government propose, therefore, that discussions should be
held by experts of the United States and United Kingdom Governments, to
review the current criteria for the maintenance of strategic controls.
It would then be possible on the new basis thus provided to prepare new
lists of embargoed items for the consideration of the two
Governments.
In the meantime, in order to meet as far as they can the interest of the
United States in the matter of the control of copper wire exports, Her
Majesty’s Government have decided that they will restrict their
licensing of exports of bare copper wire to the Soviet bloc, in the six
months period commencing on the 1st of January, 1958, to a limit of
30,000 tons.
If the United States Government find themselves able to accept the
proposal for discussions now put forward, Her Majesty’s Government will
be glad to consider their suggestions for a suitable time and place.
