ECO 15/413/11
CONFIDENTI AL
Mss Sbadart
BRITISH EMBASSY,
WASHINGTON, D.C.
17 September, 1969.
Coprestent to
Commodites Rept Hong Kong Dept V1919
U.S. Foreign Trade Policy
1224)
428 Dr. Stea
The signs are that the Administration will present a trade bill to Congress quite soon. It is fairly certain that the measure will include the familiar items: termination of
(The latter may
is File
A.S.P.; interim tariff negotiating powers; easier adjustment assistance; and an easier escape clause. revert to something like its form in the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1951, which provided for tariff increases or quotas where an industry suffered or was threatened with serious injury as a result "in whole or in part" of increased imports reflecting trade agreement concessions; at present, under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, increased imports resulting "in major part" from trade agreement concessions must be "the major factor" in causing or threatening serious injury.). There is now also a serious possibility, however, that the bill will include a number of provisions to encourage exports; I am not yet sure of the details but tax incentives. V and improved export credit arrangements have been mentioned. (Wilbur Mills has incidentally, and with his usual inscruta- bility, just tabled a bill which would inter alia permit the remission of local, State and Federal taxes directly or indirectly borne by exported goods where this is consistent with the international obligations of the United States.)
2.
If this bill is put in, the Administration will have been influenced by three considerations. They feel it is time to give some substance to President Nixon's professed intention of following a forward-looking foreign trade policy; ал initiative by the Administration would help to hold the field against unwelcome proposals by Congress itself; and of course they are conscious of their noed to implement the undertaking to try to get rid of A.S.P. by the end of this year. The proposal to include export promotion measures is intended by its advocates to improve the prospects for the legislation as a whole (and, by the same token, opposed by others who believe that these measures, desirable in themselves, would founder
G. J. MacMahon, Esq., C.B., C.M.G.,
Board of Trade.
c.c. R. Goldsmith, Esq., Board of Trade.
D. Carter, Esq., Board of Trade.
P. W. Carey, Esq., Board of Trade.
W. I. Combs, Esq., C.M.G., F.C.O.
K. C. Christofas, Esq., M.B.E., UKDEL to E.C., Brussels. A. C. Buxton, Esq., UKMIS, Geneva.
1
CONFIDENTIAL
RC EIVED IN RIGTRY NO.51 24 SEP 1969
TKK 6/04/
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.