244. Memorandum of Conversation0
SEGNI VISIT
SUBJECT
- Dollar Discrimination
[Here follows the same list of participants as Document 242.]
The President turned the direction of the conversation by commenting that he understood the Italians had plenty of gold and reserves. He would like to ask them to remove the restrictions on dollar imports.1 He then reverted to the previous subject and said clearly the West should not extend long-term credits to the Soviet Union.
[Page 546]Mr. Segni confirmed that for the time being it was true that Italy had a favorable balance of payments, but this was thanks mainly to the heavy tourist traffic which was a somewhat precarious source.
The President commented that we certainly had never imposed any restrictions or discriminations on Italian imports. Similarly, we certainly do not discourage tourists.
- Source: Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 64 D 560, CF 1490. Secret. Drafted by Kohler and cleared by S and the White House on October 14. The meeting was held at the White House. See also Documents 242–243 and 245–247.↩
- Italy maintained discriminatory import restrictions on goods coming from the United States in spite of having lifted the majority of restrictions imposed on goods coming from the Common Market nations.↩