810/.24/485
The Ambassador in Nicaragua (Stewart) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 8.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer in general to the Decentralization Plan of Export Control, to the Department’s circular telegram dated February 12, 3 p.m., and to the Embassy’s A–23, dated January 18, 1944, 10:30 a.m.,27 wherein reference is made to the imminent establishment of a comprehensive control over all imports into Nicaragua [Page 1408] from all countries, and to report that on February 21, 1944, with the issuance of an Executive Decree, the new system took effect on February 25, 1944.
Since the issuance of this Decree, the Country Agency has agreed to comply with the so-called “Roll-Back” of decentralization and the use of import recommendation forms will be limited solely to those, commodities which, by reason of continued supply and shipping restrictions, require the maintenance of the control measures encompassed by the Decentralization Plan.
Briefly, the procedure adopted makes an approved Import Permit (to be distinguished from the Import Recommendation already in use) a prerequisite to all importations except imports of such products from the United States or Canada as continue to fall within the scope of the decentralization procedure. That is to say, the Import Permit will apply to all commodities in free supply. All decentralization-controlled commodities will continue to be handled by means of the Import Recommendation; but non-decentralization imports, that is, goods in free supply from the United States or Canada, together with all imports from all other countries, will be brought within the new procedures established by the Country Agency.
The significant new developments which the new regulation embodies are, then, twofold: first, a reversal in the attitude heretofore adhered to by the Country Agency by the acceptance of the gradual and orderly withdrawal of decentralization controls from certain commodities previously controlled; second, the establishment for the first time of a comprehensive control over all imports regardless of country of origin, whereas, up until the present, control has been exercised only for imports emanating from the United States and Canada.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Country Agency felt impelled to broaden its regulatory activity in this manner for the following reasons: (1) to bring within the Government’s control the importation of commodities from those countries for which no control had previously been established; (2) the necessity of keeping the volume of imports within the range of Nicaragua’s ability to pay, thus precluding the occurrence of a situation which might precipitate a second frozen commercial debt; and (3) because such an extension of control is considered essential to effective price control.
Respectfully yours,
- Neither printed.↩