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The circulation of this paper has been strictly limited. It is issued
for the personal use of
TOP SECRET
WASHINGTON DISCUSSIONS
Copy No. 22
Estimates of the Relief the United Kingdom might get (in the year ending 30th June, 1950) from the Various "Short-Term Measures" to be Discussed
1. E.R.P. Administration-Greater Flexibility
This covers two sets of questions: (a) the eligibility of certain commodities and services for E.R.P. finance; and (b) documentation difficulties.
The importance of these figures is that the refusal of the United States authorities to regard certain commodities and services as eligible for E.C.A. (Economic Co-operation Administration) financing, or their insistence on docu- mentation conditions with which we cannot comply, means that we have to pay for them out of our free dollars. This means that these costs are literally a loss to our reserves, for our earnings of dollars are barely enough to cover our dollar expenditure other than on imports into the United Kingdom. If these commodities and services can be transferred to E.C.A. financing, this immediately eases the pressure on our reserves, for it reduces our free dollar expenditure forthwith.
.
Greater flexibility in E.R.P. administration does not provide us with any additional dollars. But it prevents loss in our reserves, by enabling us to use our E.R.P. aid in order to buy the things we really need instead of having to use some of it for the purchase of less-essential goods which we cannot really afford. In short, it enables us to cut our coat according to our cloth.
(a) Eligibility questions.-The main items are:-
*Canadian wheat and flour *Canadian cheese
*Canadian bacon
*Canadian eggs
*Canadian pulp and paper *Canadian timber
*Canadian tobacco
Miscellaneous manufactures Oil.
...
...
$ million (1949-50)
309
15
13
17
10
...
23
8
395
21
12
428
* These are all existing commitments.
$ million
? 10
30
75
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In addition there are:-
Certain dollar freights (mainly on tankers employed
by British oil companies)
Proportion of ships' dollar disbursements
Oil equipment
37521
...
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