76. Memorandum of a Conversation Between the Japanese Ambassador (Iguchi) and the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Robertson), Department of State, Washington, November 18, 19551
SUBJECT
- Trade Controls
Mr. Robertson said that the Secretary had personally talked with the French and the British about the problem of trade controls and asked them to cooperate by retaining the present level of controls until the outcome of the Johnson–Wang talks becomes clear. We therefore do not want to bring this subject up at the meeting of the CG in December. We think that the British and the French are going to be willing to cooperate with us on this question and we would very much appreciate having the same kind of cooperation from the Japanese Government.
Ambassador Iguchi referred to the list of items which the Japanese Government had submitted2 and said that he understood that this list was much longer than anything we had expected but he wondered whether perhaps three or four items of special interest to Japan could not be handled in some way. Mr. Robertson answered that from our point of view the timing would be very bad, since it would be likely to upset the whole structure of controls at this critical time, and he would appreciate it if the Japanese Government could defer any effort to secure action even on such items.
- Source: Department of State, Economic Defense Files: Lot 59 D 439, China Policy 1955. Confidential. Drafted by McClurkin.↩
- Reference is to a 27-page note handed to U.S. officials by the Japanese Embassy on October 5, which included a list of items that the Japanese desired to delete from the International China Embargo Lists. The Japanese explained that they were submitting the list “in response to the suggestions made by the Secretary of State of the United States of America in the course of recent discussions in Washington, D.C.” (Ibid.)↩