362. Minutes of a Meeting1
Tuesday, May 6, 1986/Final Plenary Session
10:14 Start
[Omitted here is the beginning of the discussion of the Summit communiqué.]
Paragraph 13—
Thatcher—Has 3 amendments. Goes over text distributed.2 Longstanding policies of subsidy and protection. Harms economies of many developing countries, etc. Page 9—end of sentence 4, add “We all recognize importance . . .” from text dist.
11:11
Nakasone—Asks reactions.
Reagan—Vast improvement. Supports.
Mulroney—Came with series of amendments but prefers Thatcher.
Chirac—First amendment (due to policies) Agrees. Agrees to third—recognition of importance of ag.
11:12
Does not agree re harm to LDC’s. What harms LDC’s is selfishness of developed countries in commodity price.
Thatcher—It does. We sell to third countries at prices below their costs. Also Australia and New Zealand harmed. Refers to Shultz statement.
11:16
Thatcher—What she suggests reflects yesterday’s discussions. Could put “wider” before protectionist.
Bangemann—Hurts economies goes too far. Say harms ag of many developing (Thatcher okays).
Mitterrand—Agrees with Thatcher. Australia and New Zealand not prototypes of 3rd World.
11:19
Reagan—ASEAN concern. Of major importance to them.
[Page 889]Shultz—A specific example: Philippines sugar. EC no longer imports, subsidizes and exports. U.S. still imports, but less. Price high, substitutes taking over. One area where insurgency strong a former sugar producer.
11:21
Africa sells below our costs on theirs—ruining own.
Wilson—Reads a text.
Chirac—EC does not subsidize exports of sugar. Can say harms some countries. What hurts them is selfishness of not stabilizing commodity prices.
11:22
Delors—Sugar: EC has lowered its subsidies. Buys but sells more. US has reduced purchases more.
Clark—Is Chirac saying “of some countries” or “some developing countries”
Chirac—some countries
Clark—Issue here is does it hurt dev. countries
11:26
Clark—Takes up Mitterrand to Niger—we are hurting indigenous production.
Howe—supports Clark. Would be willing to say “some developing countries” so as not to cover Australia, NZ, etc.
11:28
Nakasone—Focusing 2nd Thatcher amendment.
Chirac—What European produces as a result of subsidies is hurting DC’s. We should implement a price stabilization policy. Their problem is great fluctuations in commodity prices.
Howe—Derecognition of all countries that run ag. policies that are harming DC’s.
11:31
Work in many different ways to harm economies of many dev. countries.
Nakasone—Should reflect our concern for dev. countries. Would appreciate your compromise.
Chirac—Accepts, but there is hypocrisy.
11:34
Thatcher—I’ll tell you about the tin council later.
[Omitted here is further discussion of the communiqué.]
- Source: Reagan Library, George Shultz Papers, Official Personal Notes of Secretary Shultz (04/01/1986 – 05/27/1986); NLR–775–23–64–3–3. No classification marking; Sensitive. The meeting was the final plenary session of the Tokyo Economic Summit and took place at the Akasaka Palace. No drafting information appears on the minutes. See footnotes 2 and 5, Document 202. Additional documentation on the Tokyo Economic Summit is scheduled for publication in Foreign Relations, 1981–1988, vol. XXXVII, Trade; Monetary Policy; Industrialized Country Cooperation, 1985–1988.↩
- Not found.↩