Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume IX, International Development and Economic Defense Policy; Commodities

188. Action Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Trade Policy (Greenwald) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Solomon)¹

Washington, July 10, 1967.

SUBJECT

• Treasury Transaction Controls General License

You requested on June 16 that we raise this matter with you again in a few weeks. The following developments since then appear to be relevant:

1) Louis Harris attributes the recent upsurge in the President’s popularity to hopes for easing tensions emanating from the Kosygin talks and the President’s handling of the Middle East crisis.² This suggests that action such as the proposed transaction control general license, if it is noticed at all, might encourage rather than discourage Congressional support for other East-West measures on the Hill.

2) The justification for the recently approved general license for quotation data for bids on exports to Eastern Europe and the USSR is similar to the justification for the proposed transaction control general license: administrative simplification involving little if any substantive change in controls. As of July 7, neither Commerce nor E/IS had noted any public reaction to the July 3 publication of the quotation data general license.³

It is recommended that you authorize me to ask Treasury to issue the transactions control general license attached to the EWT June 13 memorandum.⁴

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, STR 13–1. Confidential. Drafted by William A. Root (E/EWT) on July 10. The date is handwritten on the source text. A notation on the source text indicates that Solomon saw the memorandum.
2. The source text indicates that a Louis Harris article in the July 2 Washington Post was attached, but it was not found.
3. Not found.
4. Solomon initialed his approval of the recommendation. The attached text of the proposed addition to the Transaction Control Regulations is not printed. The June 13 memorandum from Wright to Solomon, also attached, proposed to initiate a procedure under which “Treasury would simply notify applicants, on receipt of their application, that a Treasury license is not necessary if they obtain a license from the host country of the subsidiary. This would not involve publication of a general license but it would perhaps be less equitable to the public than a general license. L (Murray Belman) sees difficulties in this informal approach. Therefore, we believe a general license which includes an explanation that only a duplicate control is being discontinued would be the preferable solution. Such wording in the license itself would reduce the possibility of misunderstanding.”