800.24/7–2445: Airgram

The Chargé in Peru (Trueblood) to the Secretary of State

A–481. Reference Department’s secret circular telegram of July 14, 1945, 2 p.m.94 concerning the proposed liquidation of the Decentralization Plan for export control.95

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The Country Agency has been informed by letter of this proposal, and the verbal comments of its chief96 have been obtained. He stated that he would welcome the total abolition of the Decentralization Plan and the import recommendation procedure, and pointed out that the Peruvian Government has in its own Import License system a complete control over the quantities of each commodity imported into Peru from any source.

From previous remarks on the general subject of the import recommendation system, the Embassy is confident that the Peruvian Minister of Finance and Commerce (of whose Ministry the Country Agency is a part) will likewise be entirely agreeable to the liquidation of the Decentralization Plan.

The Chief of the Country Agency suggests that no public announcement of this liquidation be made until the third quarter import recommendations have been processed locally and issued to the prospective importers. This would probably involve the withholding of a public announcement until August 15. He fears that if the proposed liquidation is announced before that time, the Decentralization Plan will more or less collapse well before October 1, 1945, interrupting the regular issuance of third quarter import recommendations and thus adversely affecting FEA’s97 administration of the quotas involved. The Embassy concurs in his suggestion.

The Embassy agrees that it would be desirable to liquidate the Decentralization Plan in the near future, and concurs in the proposal that this be effected as of October 1, 1945. Since the Embassy is not sure, from the wording of the Department’s circular telegram of July 14, 2 p.m., whether it is only proposed to liquidate the Plan or whether it has been definitely decided to do so, the Embassy requests that it be instructed as to whether or not it may inform the Peruvian Government, by formal note, that the liquidation will definitely become effective on October l.98

Trueblood
  1. Ante, p. 545.
  2. The decentralization plan lodged considerable responsibility for war-time trade controls in the individual states, and produced a small positive list of commodities in short supply about which those countries indicated their preferences.
  3. The Superintendent of Imports, Wilfredo Pflucker.
  4. Foreign Economic Administration.
  5. Ambassador Pawley reported in telegram 709, July 31, 4 p.m., that the proposed liquidation of the Decentralization Plan was approved by the Country Agency, the Embassy, and the representatives of the Foreign Economic Administration (800.24/7–1345).