283. Letter From the Special Representative for Trade Negotiations’ Executive Assistant (Auchincloss) to the Special Representative for Trade Negotiations (Herter)1
Dear Governor:
The Wyndham White visit went very well, I think. He was sorry that he missed you, but he had meetings with the Vice President; Secretaries Freeman, Connor and Wirtz, and Mr. Bundy. The Dominican crisis inter-fered a bit with his meetings at State—both Mr. Ball and Mr. Mann were [Page 724] embroiled in Caribbean problems and so had to cancel their sessions with Wyndham White. But he did meet Mann at lunch and also had a number of useful talks with Tony Solomon, the new Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the trip was the interagency meetings when Wyndham White elaborated his thoughts on long-range trade policy problems—that is, beyond the Kennedy Round context. He is very much concerned that the rules of the GATT will become diluted by a host of special arrangements for the LDCs condoned or connived in by the developed countries. Preferences of course are one of his main worries. He feels it is important to hold to the most-favored-nation clause but not in a dogmatic fashion. If there are special circumstances in which a departure from MFN might be advantageous, and if all the countries that would be affected by it concur, he believes that MFN theology should not stand in the way. The main point, in his view, is to limit this special treatment to individual cases taken up on an ad hoc basis. What now appears to be happening, he warns, is that departures from MFN are being approved under the guise of free trade areas—EEC-Turkey, EEC-Nigeria, and the like. This will destroy the MFN clause if allowed to continue.
Wyndham White plans to meet with the “Big Four” (U.K., EEC, U.S. and Japan) this week to discuss next steps on the industrial side of the negotiations. He will try to get agreement on sectoral discussions to take place between now and the summer holidays. Certainly one motive behind this is the feeling that it is important to keep the negotiations in a multilateral framework. As you know, things have been proceeding mostly on a bilateral basis for some time, and there is a danger of separate deals being struck bilaterally that would limit the chances of broader multilateral cuts. The sector that he is most anxious to begin work on is textiles; he feels strongly that the cotton textile problem should be treated in the Kennedy Round context rather than entirely in the Long Term Arrangement.
I gather that Bill2 has just talked to you about the latest chapter in the ASP saga and has also filled you in on our progress towards a grains proposal. I am enclosing the latest draft of the latter,3 it will be the subject of a Trade Executive Committee meeting on Friday.4
I have also enclosed a floor plan for our new quarters at 1800 G Street. We approved this layout last week, and GSA estimates that it will take five to six weeks to outfit the space for us. So it looks as if we shall be [Page 725] moving in early June. I think we came out fairly well—we will have about 3,000 more sq. feet there than we do here.
Incidental intelligence: Congressman Curtis has gone to Geneva for a week.
Finally, I might mention that on that perennial question—definitive acceptance of the GATT—Wyndham White set out the arguments in favor of it at his lunch with our Congressional advisors, and the reaction was generally positive. We are hoping to get, through the intercession of Paul Kaplowitz,5 a green light from Wilbur Mills and to proceed from there to try to get the White House’s OK. On this issue, I imagine that the most we could really expect from Congress is absence of any negative reaction, and that is what we have so far received (except for some reservations on the part of Senator Byrd). So I hope that we will be able to push ahead.
Sincerely,
- Source: Kennedy Library, Herter Papers, Kenneth Auchincloss, Box 5. No classification marking.↩
- Reference is to William M. Roth, Deputy Special Representative for Trade Negotiations.↩
- The enclosures to this letter have not been found.↩
- May 7.↩
- Chairman of the U.S. Trade Commission.↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩