Office of the Historian

153. Memorandum of Meeting1 2

Washington, June 13, 1969, 11:30 a.m.
[Page 1]

PARTICIPANTS

  • The President
  • President Carlos Lleras Restrepo of Colombia
  • Alfonso Lopez Michelsen, Foreign Minister of Colombia
  • Ambassador Misael Pastrana, Ambassador of Colombia
  • Dr. Rodrigo Botero, Private Secretary to President Lleras
  • Mr. Charles A. Meyer, Assistant Secretary, Department of State
  • Ambassador Emil Mosbacher, Chief of Protocol, Department of State
  • Mr. Viron P. Vaky, NSC Staff

SUBJECT:

  • Farewell Call of President Lleras

PART 4—Tariffs and Preferences; IA–ECOSOC Meeting; Science and Technology

President Nixon stated that with reference to the Trinidad meeting of the Inter-American Economic and Social Council, he understood that technical working groups may be set up subsequently to take up various items for further study. Among these would be the question of tariffs and preferences. President Lleras said that his meeting yesterday with Secretaries Stans and Kennedy was very helpful. President Nixon referred to President Lleras’ comments the previous day referring to the possibility of a system of generalized preferences which might not, however, extend to those nations enjoying special preferences from a given country or countries, e.g. former French African colonies. This would, he noted, adhere to the general framework and principle generalized preferences. President Nixon said, however, that he was disposed to consider regional preferences if that seemed the best step to take at a later time. In any case, this whole subject required careful study.

[Page 2]

President Lleras observed that there had been conversations with Dr. DuBridge’s office and the National Science Foundation on exchanges and cooperation in science and technology. He thought this very important, and he proposed that he say in his comments to the press after this meeting that such cooperation in the fields of science and technology had been discussed during his visit. President Nixon agreed that this would be a good idea. The President noted that he had told Dr. DuBridge he wanted to strengthen international cooperation and exchange in these fields.

  1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1967–1969, POL 7 COL. Secret; Exdis. Part 4 of 5 parts. The meeting was held in the Oval Office. According to the President’s Daily Diary, the meeting lasted until 12:06 p.m. (Ibid., Nixon Presidential Materials, White House Central Files, President’s Daily Diary) An attached covering June 14 memorandum from Vaky to Davis, indicated that special distribution of the memorandum was made to the Departments of State, Commerce, and the Treasury, and DuBridge.↩
  2. President Nixon stated that working groups would be set up after the IA–ECOSOC meeting to study tariffs and preferences. Nixon also said that he liked the idea of regional preferences, if that seemed the best future step to take.↩