Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Foreign Economic Policy, Volume IV

109. Minutes of the 93d Meeting of the CFEP⁰

September 24, 1959.¹

[Here follow a list of participants and discussion of unrelated matters.]

III.

The Council was briefed by the Chairman on the impressions he received regarding our foreign economic policy during his recent trip to Europe from U.S. officials in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Paris, and London.

The Chairman said there was great interest in the forthcoming GATT negotiations and that most of our officials believed that these negotiations would be a test of U.S. leadership in the liberal trade field. He said there is concern about our balance of payments, and that our embassies are pressing the countries to which they are accredited to eliminate dollar discrimination. On the other hand, he said it was his opinion that there was not a similar urgency to stimulate our export program. He said the embassies have been doing little or nothing to get foreign governments to eliminate their restrictions on travel, which he thought would be one way by which we could materially help our balance of payments. He also said that the “Six” have made good progress in getting the Common Market established and that, as a result, the transition period will be greatly shortened. He added that the burning question presented to him by our officials is whether the U.S. should publicly support the “Seven”.

IV.

Mr. Kearns briefed the Council on the current U.S. export situation and expressed the opinion that U.S. exports could be expanded significantly by the following actions:

a. Strengthen the foreign commercial service of the United States.

b. Improve government communication of trade information to the business world.

c. Launch an aggressive program to convince business that export trade is essential, profitable and can be expanded.

d. Revise the policy of trade fair exhibits, emphasizing the sale of American products to a much greater degree.

e. Revise the policy of Trade Mission Programs with the purpose of making the principal objective that of increasing the sale of American products.

f. Study the adequacy of air and sea transportation facilities to insure the maximum possible benefit for the shipment of American products at the most favorable rates.

g. Study credit availabilities and terms to determine if private sources will be adequate or if the government must provide additional credit facilities.

h. Emphasize at every occasion the need to keep our competitive system in full play, pointing out that world competition must affect the prices of our products just as domestic competition does.

i. Continue effectively to remove discrimination in artificial trade restrictions with every device possible.

V. CFEP 588—Policy for Tariff Negotiations, 1960–61

The Council considered and adopted a proposed policy statement for the 1960–1961 tariff negotiations submitted by the CFEP committee established for this purpose.² The policy statement as adopted is attached to these minutes.

Paul H. Cullen
Lt. Col., USA Secretary

Attachment

³

POLICY STATEMENT BY COUNCIL ON FOREIGN ECONOMIC POLICY ON SCOPE OF PUBLIC LIST FOR THE 1960 TARIFF NEGOTIATIONS

1. On signing the Trade Agreements Extension Act of August 20, 1958,⁴ the President said:

“...⁵ the free nations are now assured of a continuity in United States trade policy that will make possible new international negotiations to promote mutually advantageous commercial exchange and increased world productivity.

“As the authority conferred by this important measure is used, it will further our own nation’s domestic interests and will promote the economic strength, solidarity and security of the free and independent nations.”

2. In response to this expression of the President’s desire that the new trade agreements authority should be effectively used in the interest of the United States and other free countries, the United States Delegation to the Thirteenth Session of the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) proposed last October that the Contracting Parties sponsor a new round of multilateral tariff negotiations. The United States proposal was approved by the Contracting Parties at their Fourteenth Session in May 1959. In proposing the new round of negotiations, the United States was motivated in part by the need to bring about a lowering of the common external tariff of the European Economic Community in order to assure that United States exports will have continuing access to this increasingly vital market and to help ease trade adjustments between the Community and other countries in the GATT. Another important consideration was the desirability of influencing the development along liberal lines of European trade policies, including those of the new Community. Our aims with respect to the EEC are central to our foreign economic policy objectives as a whole.

3. Just as the initiative of this Government was a determining factor in obtaining the agreement of the Contracting Parties to sponsor the new round of negotiations, so our leadership will be the prime factor in determining their success or failure. It is accordingly important that the United States make a practical demonstration of its intention to negotiate for an exchange of tariff concessions on a scale sufficiently broad to call forth extensive offers from the countries which are preparing to negotiate with the United States. These countries will be greatly influenced by the scope of our public list of import items on which we are prepared to consider offering tariff concessions.

4. It is thus in the national interest that the public list submitted to the President by the Trade Agreements Committee through the Trade Policy Committee should be as broad as is consistent with the principle of selectivity on which the operation of the trade agreements program is based. Consistent with past procedures, in applying this principle items should be listed unless there are strong reasons for not doing so. It is understood of course that the listing of an item for consideration in the negotiations does not mean that a decision has been made to offer a tariff concession. In accordance with the trade agreements legislation, such decisions will be made by the President in the light of full information, after public hearings are held and the peril point procedure is carried out, upon recommendation of the TAC and review by the TPC.

0. Source: Eisenhower Library, CFEP Records, Office Series, Council Minutes, 1959 (1). Official Use Only.
1. The meeting was held at the Executive Office Building.
2. Established July 30, the committee included Mann, Kearns, Upton, Hardy, George C. Lodge, Irwin, and Miller. (CFEP 588/info, July 30; Washington National Records Center, RG 59, CFEP Files: FRC 62 A 624, CFEP 588/1, Policy for Tariff Negotiations, 60–61)
3. Official Use Only. The source text is undated, but Cullen sent the statement to Council members in CFEP 588/1, September 17. (Ibid.)
4. See Document 77.
5. Ellipsis in the source text.