213. Memorandum From Secretary of Commerce Baldrige to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (McFarlane)1
SUBJECT
- NSSD on U.S. Third World Hunger Relief (S)
The Department of Commerce will be represented on the Interagency Steering Group by the Assistant Secretary for International Economic Policy.
The Department of Commerce has long stressed the linkage between trade development interests and agricultural policy, particularly in the Third World. We have worked closely with the Department of Agriculture in putting together foreign trade missions and seminars to support economic and commercial relations with countries which have demonstrated a willingness to strive for agricultural self sufficiency. We look forward to participating in the proposed study and hope that it will lead to a more coordinated, government-wide effort linking U.S. assistance to in-country attempts at agricultural development and indigenous efforts to relieve hunger. (S)
Also, we particularly look forward to participating in the study of (1) possible U.S. action to increase food aid without fundamental conflict to our international trade obligations, and (2) steps to increase public and private sector cooperation toward relieving Third World debt and hunger. It is in the U.S. economic/commercial interest, as well as our strategic and political interest, to alleviate these problems and much can be done to increase public perception of this fact.
- Source: Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC NSSD File, NSSD 1–84 [US Third World Hunger Relief] (1 of 3). Secret.↩