DR–30. Memorandum from the Secretary of State to the President1
Washington, December 8,
1960
SUBJECT
- Application of Additional Economic Measures against the Dominican
Republic
Within the next several days it will be necessary for the Department of
Agriculture to estimate consumption of sugar in the United States. It
appears that it will be legally necessary to continue purchases of sugar
from the Dominican Republic for the first three months of calendar year
1961. Such purchases will include approximately 28,000 tons under the
regular quota which must be purchased at the United States price and
somewhere in the neighborhood of 200,000 tons extra-quota which it is
planned to purchase at the world price. A separate memorandum on this
subject will be forwarded to you shortly.
While we hope that it will be possible to temper the effect in Venezuela
of an announcement concerning sugar purchases with an indication that
the Administration intends to recommend that the next Congress grant
discretionary authority to the President to forego such purchases, this
will nevertheless create a strain on our relations with the Betancourt regime and will possibly
strengthen communist-inspired opposition to Betancourt.
At the same time we are faced with the necessity of taking a position on
the question of whether the American States should on a multilateral
basis apply additional economic measures against the Dominican
Government. The Council of the Organization of American States was
requested by the San José Foreign Ministers Meeting to study the
desirability and feasibility of extending economic sanctions to other
commodities. A special committee was created by the Council for this
purpose and any further delay on our part in taking a position will
expose us to Venezuelan charges of bad faith.
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In view of this situation I recommend that you authorize the Department
of State to suggest to the special committee that the United States will
be prepared to cooperate in a multilateral program prohibiting the
exportation of petroleum and petroleum products, trucks and spare parts
to the Dominican Republic. A statement which it is proposed that
Ambassador Bonsal make before the special committee early next week is
enclosed for your consideration.2
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The Commerce Department has indicated its willingness to apply the
necessary export controls.3
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[Enclosure]
Suggested Statement to be made in Special Committee of the Council
of the OAS on Resolution I of the
Sixth Meeting of Foreign Ministers
My Delegation is now prepared to present for the consideration of
this Special Committee its views with respect to the mandate given
the Council of the Organization of American States by Resolution I
of the Sixth Meeting of Foreign Ministers to study the feasibility
and desirability of extending the suspension in trade with the
Dominican Republic to articles in addition to arms.
Some time ago this Committee was informed that the United States was
preparing a study on Dominican foreign trade by commodity and
country in an attempt to assess the feasibility of an embargo by the
American States on specific items of Dominican commerce. As a first
result of this study, petroleum and petroleum products and trucks
and spare parts, which are not produced in the Dominican Republic,
appear to the United States Government to be examples of items the
export of which to the Dominican Republic it would be feasible to
suspend at this time.
With respect to petroleum and its products, in 1959 62% of Dominican
imports by value came from the Netherlands Antilles directly and
from Venezuela indirectly, 14% from the United States, and 13% from
Venezuela. During the past year, Caribbean sources of Dominican
petroleum imports have
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been largely out off. There are indications,
however, that the Dominican Republic has started to tap other
sources of petroleum supply, namely in Canada, Europe and perhaps
the Middle East. This, of course, would tend to reduce the
effectiveness of a total suspension in the exports of the OAS member states. Any effective
embargo on all or most of the Dominican supply of petroleum would
undoubtedly have a serious adverse effect on the Dominican people as
inevitably would any measures taken which would have an impact on
the Dominican economy. Dominican internal transport and over
one-half of Dominican production of
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electric power are dependent
upon petroleum. The capabilities of the Dominican military
establishment would, of course, also be greatly reduced by an
effective embargo.
With respect to trucks and spare parts, approximately one-half of
Dominican imports of trucks in 1959 came from the United States and
the rest from Europe, while the United States percentage of the
supply of spare parts was probably higher. A complete embargo on
such shipments from OAS member
states would doubtlessly have an effect on Dominican internal
transport, although that country would presumably continue to
increase its purchases from European sources.
While the United States is prepared to extend the embargo in the
manner suggested, it is, of course, for the Special Committee to
decide whether this should be done, having in
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mind the remarks of
some of the delegations at the San José Meeting concerning injury to
the Dominican people. In the event a recommendation to that effect
is made by this Committee, my Government would be prepared to
support such a finding by the Council. While my Government
understands that any such finding on the part of the Council would
be recommendatory rather than obligatory in nature with respect to
the individual member states, it would undertake in good faith to
implement it, with the understanding that the other member states
would do likewise. This should, of course, include measures by the
other states to prevent transshipment to the Dominican Republic
through their respective territories of these articles originating
in any member state, in order to insure to the extent possible the
effectiveness of these sanctions. It is important in my Government’s
view to preserve the collective nature of any further decisions and
actions taken by member states in this regard, following upon the
action already jointly taken by them at the Sixth Meeting of Foreign
Ministers.
The United States is continuing its study of the feasibility of
applying the suspension in trade to other commodities and expects to
present its further views when these studies are completed.
