493.949/2–253
No. 629
Memorandum by the Deputy Director of the
Office of Northeast Asian Affairs (McClurkin) to the Assistant Secretary of
State for Far Eastern Affairs (Allison)
Subject:
- Japan’s Export Security Controls.
This memorandum is submitted in accordance with your request for information on the public relations aspects of United States negotiations with Japan on export security controls and for recommendations on what may appropriately be said to the press and to Members of Congress. We may expect inquiries on this subject as the result of stories such as the brief item on the United Press ticker on January 31 stating that the Japanese Government had announced that, as a result of negotiations with the United States, agreement had been reached that ninety previously embargoed items could now be exported to Communist China.
Background
Under the bilateral agreement concerning the control of exports to Communist China, signed at Washington on September 5, 19521 by representatives of the Department of State and the Japanese Embassy, Japan agreed to embargo all commodities included in the International Control Lists and the United States Control Lists. The specific controls to be applied to other items considered to be of strategic importance to Communist China was left for subsequent negotiation between representatives of the Foreign Office and our Embassy at Tokyo. These negotiations are now underway.
The negotiations at Washington which led up to the bilateral agreement, the existence of the agreement, and the current negotiations in Tokyo have been treated as secret by both this Government and the Japanese Government. Unexpected delays have occurred, however, in securing a coordinated United States Government position on the list of items under negotiation and it has probably become increasingly difficult for the Japanese Government to maintain the fiction that it is not consulting with this Government on export control policy. Approximately a month ago, however, the Chief of the Economic Affairs Bureau of the Foreign Office assured our Embassy (Tokyo’s despatch No. 1252, January 2)2 that in announcing the relaxation of controls on agreed items, [Page 1383] every effort would be made to avoid any connection with, or mention of the existence of, the bilateral agreement. In reporting the appearance of an article in the Nippon Times referring to United States “consent” to the relaxation of controls on specified items, our Embassy commented (Tokyo’s No. 2225, January 12)3 that the story appeared to be a leak which occurred in spite of Foreign Office precautions.
At the time of the bilateral negotiations, the Japanese representatives stated that the Japanese Government would probably find it advisable to make a statement in the Diet on its export control policy. To our knowledge no such statement has been made. It may be expected, however, that the question of United States influence on Japanese export control policy may now be raised in the Diet.
Basically we have received fine cooperation from the Japanese Government with regard to export security controls. The controls exercised by the Japanese are more stringent than those of any other country except the United States and Canada. Of the 400 items originally submitted to the Japanese as the basis for the negotiations at Tokyo, the Japanese accepted approximately 280 without question, reducing the area of negotiation to the remaining 120 items. Interagency agreement has not yet been obtained on 40 of these items due to the preoccupation of Department of Commerce technicians with other matters. With regard to the balance of approximately 80 items, our Embassy has been authorized to agree to quantitative controls instead of embargo on approximately twothirds and has been asked to press for continued embargo on the remaining one-third.
[Here follow recommendations regarding public information policy.]
- See circular telegram 321, Document 599.↩
- Not printed. (493.949/1–253)↩
- Not printed. (493.949/1–1253)↩