361. Editorial Note

The Second Meeting of the Joint U.S.-Japan Committee on Trade and Economic Affairs was held at Washington December 3-5, 1962.

Cabinet Ministers attending for Japan were Masayoshi Ohira, Foreign Affairs; Hajime Fukuda, International Trade and Industry; Seishi Shigemasa, Agriculture and Forestry; Kakuei Tanaka, Finance; Kiichi Miyazawa, Economic Planning; and Takeo Ohashi, Labor. Ryuji Takeuchi, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Ambassador Asakai also attended. Representing the United States were Secretary Rusk; Stewart Udall, Interior; Orville Freeman, Agriculture; Edward Gudeman, Acting Secretary of Commerce; Willard Wirtz, Labor; C. Douglas Dillon, Treasury; Walter Heller, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers; and Ambassador Reischauer.

Agenda topics included: review of the current economic situation in Japan and the United States; review of current financial, monetary, and balance of payments situation in Japan and the United States; economic growth in Japan and the United States; expansion of trade and promotion of economic relations between Japan and the United States; trends in international trade and economic relations; and problems of economic development in less-developed countries.

A “Scope Paper,” dated November 26, states that the three main U.S. objectives at the meeting were to obtain full Japanese participation on a broad basis in the proposed GATT negotiations for tariff reductions under the new U.S. Trade Expansion Act; more substantial and meaningful progress toward full Japanese liberalization of its restrictive trade and exchange controls, with emphasis on early liberalization of commodities of importance to U.S. exporters; and increased Japanese assistance to the less-developed countries and continued improvement in the terms of such assistance. (JAE/D-22, drafted by Thelma Vettel of FE/EA; Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 65 D 533, CF 2187) For the Trade Expansion Act, approved October 11, 1962, as P.L. 87-794, see 76 Stat. 872.

Scheduling information, briefing papers, talking papers, extensive summaries of the sessions, and memoranda of conversation are in Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 65 D 533, CF 2187-2192. Additional documentation is ibid., Central File 411.9441 for November and December 1962.

In a memorandum for the file prepared on January 8, 1963, P.W. Kriebel of the Executive Secretariat wrote that “according to FE/EA the main accomplishment of the recent meetings with the Japanese was a commitment by the Japanese Cabinet to take full part in the proposed negotiations under the U.S. Trade Expansion Act.” (Ibid., Conference Files: Lot 65 D 533, CF 2187)

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Additional information on the meeting is in Documents 358 and 362-364. For text of the communique of the meeting, issued November 4, see Department of State Bulletin, December 24, 1962, page 959. The documents printed here should be read in conjunction with the text of the communique.