100. Letter From President Reagan to Romanian President Ceausescu1
I am writing to you privately on a matter of grave consequence for the future of our bilateral relationship. I know that you value, as I do, the pattern of contacts in the political field and the mutually beneficial growth of trade between our countries which have characterized the period since 1969. We are important to each other and must work to sustain positive momentum. Neither of us will gain from a reversal of a process which you, Mr. President, my predecessors and I have so carefully nurtured.
When problems have arisen, I and my predecessors have written to you frankly about them. I appreciate your Government’s willingness to act favorably on a number of individual emigration cases and to engage in our recent discussions of emigration practices and procedures. We [Page 284] were looking forward to continuing this dialogue. As you are aware, the debate in the Congress on the extension of Most Favored Nation status last summer was vigorous and sharp, but I believed that the approach we were developing would bring a positive Congressional conclusion once again next year.
It was against the background of this favorable development, however, that I received the disturbing news that your Government plans to require repayment in convertible currency by emigrants of the cost of their education from the secondary level on.2 You will recall that it was such measures when enacted in the Soviet Union a decade ago that led to the adoption of certain provisions in the Trade Act of 1974.
I understand the difficult economic situation which you now face and which may have been a factor in this matter. We want to continue to be helpful in meeting your economic needs. However, implementation of this new decree can only worsen our economic relations. Mr. President, the implementation of your new decree in its present form would put me in the regrettable position where I would have no alternative but to take action under the Trade Act of 1974 to suspend Most Favored Nation treatment of Romanian exports to the United States and to deny future U.S. official credits and guarantees. This is step which I would take with the greatest reluctance since I am fully aware of the great efforts Romania has made to increase its exports to the United States to their 1981 level of over $500 million. Nevertheless, my responsibility to carry out the mandate of U.S. law would unfortunately leave me no choice in the matter.
I therefore most earnestly urge that you reconsider the implementation of your Government’s decree while our two countries jointly examine how best to approach questions relating to emigration. If you would find it useful, I would be pleased to send a personal envoy to Bucharest to discuss with you privately the implications under U.S. law of the new Romanian education repayment decree and related matters of mutual interest, including continuance of the Agreement on Trade Relations between our two countries. In addition, I would like to suggest that we authorize our respective representatives to hold a second meeting on emigration questions in the very near future.
I deeply believe and trust that with patience and understanding on both sides we will be able to resolve this potentially damaging problem so that we can resume our mutually beneficial relationship.
Sincerely,
- Source: Reagan Library, Paula J. Dobriansky Files, Chronological File, Chron 11/05/1982–12/17/1982, NLR–145–8–44–10–3. No classification marking.↩
- See Document 99.↩