277. Minutes of the Cabinet Meeting0
[Here follows a list of participants.]
Crude Oil Imports—The President opened the meeting by inquiring of Sec. Weeks the status of the Oil Import Committee study. Mr. Weeks replied that the Committee would be ready to see the President early next week. The President then asked as to the character of the conclusions being reached. Sec. Weeks said that apparently the Committee would recommend a combination of the voluntary program with an addition of some leverage through resort to the Buy American Act. An Executive Order by the President would be recommended.1 Import volume would be reduced to 713 million barrels daily for Districts I-IV in order to maintain the 12% ratio in the face of reduced consumption. Also the quotas would be reapportioned to allow entry of additional importers into the program.
In reply to another query from the President, Sec. Weeks stated he did not expect domestic production to increase in the near future.
The President then asserted that if a program like this failed to work, it would be necessary to at least try compulsory quotas. He again cited the very low level of activity in the oil industry and reaffirmed his dislike of a situation where a recalcitrant company could deviate without punishment from a generally agreed program.
Sec. Dulles opined that the voluntary restriction of imports had worked about as well as could be expected, that the decrease in consumption was the new factor making necessary adjustment of quotas, and that many industries were experiencing difficulties. The President recalled the great length of time the problem had existed and expressed some reservations as to the potential effectiveness of voluntary agreements for solving the problem.
Sec. McElroy stated that the Department did not object to the new policy but he wished to make clear that the Buy American feature might cost Defense between $10 and $20 million additional per year.
[Here follows discussion of unrelated subjects.]
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Cabinet Series. Confidential. Drafted by Minnich.↩
- On March 27, the President issued Executive Order 10761 which instructed the Federal government to buy only American domestic crude petroleum or products made from any product refined in the United States from such crude petroleum. For text of the executive order, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1958, pp. 1490–1491.↩