Office of the Historian

404. Letter From the General Counsel of the Department of the Treasury (Eggers) to the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee (Long)1

Washington, undated.

Dear Mr. Chairman:

Reference is made to your request for the views of this Department on S. 2400, “To revise the quota-control system on the importation of certain meat and meat products.”2

The proposed legislation would limit the imports of meat and meat products described in items 106.10 (cattle), 106.20 (goats and sheep, except lambs), 106.30 (lambs), 107.40, 107.45, 107.50, 107.55 and 107.60 (prepared or preserved beef and veal except sausages) of the Tariff Schedules of the United States to the average aggregate quantity of such articles imported during the calendar years 1965, 1966 and 1967, subject to an adjustment based on the percentage of increase or decrease in the domestic production of such products in that year and the two preceding years in comparison with the average annual domestic production during the years 1965-1967. It would also give the President discretionary authority to impose quotas on meat and meat products other than those enumerated above and would repeal Public Law 88-4823 which limits imports of the products covered by items 106.10 and 106.20.

The Department believes that the existing law and voluntary quota system provide adequate protection for the domestic industry. Furthermore, the imposition of a quota would tend to have retaliatory effects. The Department is, therefore, opposed to the enactment of S. 2400.

The Department has been advised by the Bureau of the Budget that there is no objection from the standpoint of the Administration’s program to the submission of this report to your Committee.

Sincerely yours,

Paul W. Eggers 4
  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Agency Files, Box 289, Treasury Volume I. No classification marking. Attached to an August 29 memorandum from Richard Moose to Peter Vaky informing him that the Budget Bureau wanted the National Security Council’s informal comment on the Treasury report. Presumably the text printed here is a draft circulated for clearance.↩
  2. The request was not further identified.↩
  3. Approved August 22, 1964. (78 Stat. 594)↩
  4. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩