Office of the Historian

279. Letter From the Special Representative for Trade Negotiations’ Executive Assistant (Auchincloss) to the Special Representative for Trade Negotiations (Herter)1

Washington, March 23, 1965.

Dear Governor:

I imagine this will be the last of my reports directed to you in New York. We are delighted to hear about your plans to go to Nassau and from now on I will send these summaries directly to the poolside in Lyford Key.2

Hallstein Visit—President Hallstein’s trip went off very well. Bill Roth saw him last Wednesday and he was full of his usual convictions about the importance of the Kennedy Round’s success. One thing that apparently is bothering him is recent talk about some accommodation between the British Labor Government and the EEC. This is revived discussion in Europe about an “interim arrangement” between the EEC and the EFTA, one form of which would call for the EEC to join EFTA. Hallstein feels strongly that any interim solution would probably be a barrier [Page 716] to the eventual entry of Great Britain and other EFTA countries into the EEC. It also could reduce the impetus of the Kennedy Round in European circles.

Work in Geneva—As I am sure you know by now the papers on the agricultural negotiations and on LDC participation were approved at the TNC meeting last Thursday.3 This step forward generated quite a bit of favorable press coverage which generally took the line the Kennedy Round finally seems to be getting somewhere.

At the same meeting, the Scandinavian countries came forward with a proposal for the reduction or elimination of trade barriers on tropical products as soon as possible. This won general support from almost all delegations, but the EEC simply said that it would be prepared to discuss the suggestion at a later time.

A number of additional countries have now been admitted to “full participant” basis in the negotiations, Greece, Turkey and, in the near future, Israel which will announce the basis of its participation by April 15. Portugal said that it expects to table its offers on July 1st.

Budget Hearings—The House hearings on the 1966 Budget took place today and went very smoothly. Congressman Rooney was unaccountably absent and we got very mild and cordial treatment from the Subcommittee. Congressman Bow in the name of the entire Committee asked about your health and sent very best wishes to you.

Blumenthal Visit—Mike Blumenthal will be here next week and I expect that high on the list of subjects for discussion will be such problems as: How we handle the agricultural talks between May and September? What form our grains proposal should take and how the so-called sector studies on the industrial side will be handled. On the latter, we have been pushing forward under the leadership of Ted Gates to amass as much information as possible about the main foreign industries in a few key sectors. We have used our technical specialists a good deal and they have been most helpful.

I am enclosing an unclassified airgram from the Mission in Brussels4 which gives some of the background for the agricultural decisions that face the EEC this Spring. Hallstein incidentally was quite pessimistic about the likelihood of the Germans agreeing to unification of dairy prices and perhaps some of the other regulations before their elections this autumn.

Warmest regards from all of us. I hope that Nassau turns out to be as delightful as it sounds.

Sincerely,5

  1. Source: Kennedy Library, Herter Papers, Kenneth Auchincloss, Box 5. No classification marking.↩
  2. A hotel in Nassau.↩
  3. March 18.↩
  4. Not further identified.↩
  5. Printed from an unsigned copy.↩