Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume IV, Foreign Assistance, International Development, Trade Policies, 1969–1972

203. Information Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon¹

Washington, May 19, 1969.

SUBJECT

• Your Meeting at 11:00 a.m. with Secretary Stans

Secretary Stans will report to you on his Asian trip, from which he has just returned. He visited Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The major result of the trip was the unanimous rebuff to our textile request from the Asians. All flatly refused even to attend a GATT meeting to discuss a multilateral arrangement to cover voluntary controls by textile exporters.²

The main issue is thus how we should pursue the textile issue. You may wish to ask the Secretary for his views on this subject.

The Japanese also made it clear that they related our textile request to our requests that they liberalize their treatment of imports from the U.S. and U.S. investment in Japan. We thus made no progress on these other issues either.

1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Agency Files, Box 213, Commerce, Volume I 1970. Limited Official Use. “The President has seen” is stamped at the top of the page. The President met with Stans and Kissinger from 11:15 to 11:37 a.m. on May 19. (Ibid., White House Central Files, President’s Daily Diary) No record of the conversation was found.
2. See also footnote 2, Document 201.