225. Letter From Secretary of Commerce Hodges to Secretary of State Rusk1
Dear Dean:
As you know, President Johnson has signed the attached Executive Order creating an interdepartmental, cabinet-level committee on export expansion, to be chaired by the Secretary of Commerce.2
On December 20, 1963, the President appointed Daniel L. Goldy (of Oregon) National Export Expansion Coordinator. Under the terms of the Executive Order, I have appointed Mr. Goldy to be Executive Director of the Committee.
This Interdepartmental Committee has been created to facilitate the coordination of the policies and programs of the Federal Government designed to expand the U.S. share of world markets. The problem of increasing U.S. exports has come to a sharp focus due to our persistently unfavorable balance of payments. In addition, every effort should be made to increase U.S. sales abroad so as to stimulate our domestic economy and to create additional jobs here at home. While the Department of Commerce has a primary responsibility for promoting the foreign commerce of the United States, other departments and agencies of government also have vital roles to play in this endeavor.
The Interdepartmental Committee and the National Export Expansion Coordinator will strive for maximum coordination of the policies and programs of the Federal Government in pursuit of our foreign trade objectives.
The White House Conference on Export Expansion, which was held on September 17 and 18, 1963 and attended by close to 300 leading businessmen resulted in a series of recommendations on export promotion.3 [Page 614] Many of these recommendations can be implemented by individual Departments. Others require joint action or coordination of Departmental policies. One of the functions of the Interdepartmental Committee, and a major responsibility of the National Export Expansion Coordinator, is to encourage and assist the relevant Departments and agencies to put into effect promptly as many of those recommendations as possible.
I will be calling a meeting soon and, meanwhile, I would appreciate it if you would have a member of your staff prepare a review of what your agency does or contemplates doing along export expansion lines so that the Coordinator and members of our Cabinet Committee may be kept informed.4
In the future, Mr. Goldy will make every effort to cooperate fully with you or whomever you designate concerning these important programs.
Sincerely yours,
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, FT (EX) US. No classification marking. Similar letters were sent to the Departments of the Treasury, Defense, and Agriculture, Agency for International Development, Export-Import Bank, and Small Business Administration on January 15, and the following day to the Department of the Interior, whose head, Secretary Udall, had asked on January 10 to serve as a full member of the interdepartmental committee. (Washington National Records Center, RG 40, Secretary of Commerce Files: FRC 69 A 6828, Export Expansion Interagency Committee)↩
- A copy of Executive Order 11132, “Establishing the Interagency Committee on Export Expansion,” December 12, 1963, is attached but not printed.↩
- The results of this conference were published in Progress Report on Recommendations of the White House Conference on Export Expansion, January 1964. (Washington National Records Center, RG 40, Records from the Office of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., Under Secretary of Commerce, 1963–June 1965: FRC 68 A 5947, Export Expansion) For highlights of the report, see Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, vol. IX, pp. 616–618.↩
- In a March 24 letter to Hodges, attached to the source text, Secretary Rusk reported that Robert Eakens, Department of State Coordinator for Commercial Activities, had been appointed the Department’s representative to the interdepartmental committee. He also enclosed a 34-page paper, “A Review of the Export Expansion Program and the Department of State,” March 10.↩