Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume VIII, International Monetary and Trade Policy

364. Airgram From the Mission to the European Office of the United Nations to the Department of State¹

Tagg A–471

Geneva, June 18, 1967.

SUBJECT

• ExOff—Exchange of Letters Concerning Japan’s Proposed Measures on Selected QRItems

REF

• Gatt A–9, June 8, 1967²

For Roth from Lewis. On June 9, Mr. Rehm and Mr. Hirabayashi again met with the Japanese Kennedy Round Delegation (Ohtaka) to exchange views on the most appropriate method of handling in GATT Japan’s measures intended to ease present import quota controls on selected commodities. We urged, as had been done during previous meetings, that Japan send a letter to the GATT Secretariat informing it of these measures. If that were done, Japan would have on record a clear indication of its efforts to move in the direction of complete elimination of import quota controls on these items. The United States would receive a copy of that communication. If desired, we could send an appropriate letter to the Japanese Delegation commenting on Japan’s commitments with respect thereto.

Mr. Ohtaka reiterated the Japanese Delegation’s position that Japan wished to exchange letters bilaterally rather than follow the U.S. Delegation’s suggestion. He said the Japanese Delegation had already agreed with our negotiating partners (U.K., Canada, and the EEC) to exchange bilateral letters on the QR items. Presentationally, the Japanese Government would have difficulty explaining to the Diet why letters were exchanged with all countries, except the United States. Moreover, certain quota liberalization measures of interest to the United States would not be of direct interest to other negotiating partners. The Japanese Delegation therefore urged strongly that the U.S. Delegation consider a bilateral exchange on the QR items of interest to the U.S.

We repeated the provisions of the Trade Expansion Act which prevent the United States Government from giving Japan negotiating credit for measures relating to QR items which are contrary to Japan’s obligations to GATT. Following a lengthy exchange on this problem, the Japanese expressed full understanding of the U.S. position.

Attachments 1 and 2 show the verbatim text of the proposed exchange of letters on Japan’s measures relating to QR items.³ The Japanese Delegation has sent a message to Tokyo requesting approval of the proposed language.

The Delegation believes that the language in the proposed U.S. letter fully protects the U.S. position that Japan’s QR’s are illegal in GATT and that they should be eliminated. We request, therefore, Washington approval of the proposed exchange of letters and the language contained therein.

Tubby

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, FT 7 GATT. Limited Official Use. Drafted by Martin Y. Hirabayashi (KR) on June 15; cleared by Rehm (KR), Brewster (KR), J. Birkhead (KR); and approved by Lewis (U.S. Mission, Geneva). Repeated to Tokyo.
2. Gatt A–9 to Geneva, June 9, discussed prospects for the liberalization of quota restrictions on agricultural products as part of the Kennedy Round. (Ibid.)
3. Not printed.