Office of the Historian

221. Memorandum From the Department of State Executive Secretary (Read) to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)1

Washington, June 3, 1964.

SUBJECT

  • Extra-Long Staple Cotton

This memorandum is for Messrs. Dungan, Feldman, and Bator.

My memorandum to Mr. Buddy dated May 12, 1964 transmitted a copy of a letter to Under Secretary of Agriculture Murphy setting forth the Department’s objections to a proposed export subsidy on extra-long staple cotton.2 Mr. Murphy has commented upon that letter in a memorandum to the White House dated May 27, 1964.3 Our comments on Mr. Murphy’s memorandum are forwarded herewith.

The points we wish to stress are these: (1) under present circumstances we cannot grant an export subsidy consistently with our obligations under the GATT; (2) the benefits to be derived from such a subsidy, which would affect only one percent of our total cotton production, are nowhere near commensurate with the damage that would be done to our relations with the major producers of extra-long staple cotton and with the developing countries generally; and (3) the present surplus results from a substantial increase in the acreage allotment since 1960–61 due to overestimating the anticipated consumption increase. This is a problem which can and should be corrected domestically, rather than exported to the disruption of the world market.

J.J. deMartino 4
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Subject File, Trade—General, Vol. I [1 of 2], Box 47. Limited Official Use.↩
  2. See footnote 3, Document 220. Read’s May 12 memorandum to Buddy is in the Johnson Library, National Security File, Subject File, Trade—General, Vol. I [1 of 2], Box 47.↩
  3. Document 220.↩
  4. De Martino signed for Read above Read’s typed signature.↩