810.24/473b: Circular telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to Certain Diplomatic Representatives in the American Republics 57
The Foreign Economic Administration, with the concurrence of the Department, is sending airgrams proposing a further rollback of the Decentralization Plan which involves five commodity groups.58 [Page 739] The Department believes time has arrived to initiate further progressive and orderly rollbacks of the Plan in order to eliminate excessive documentary controls in the field, to accommodate the changing production situation in the United States, and to avoid jeopardizing our future trade position by the continuance of documentary controls which are susceptible to developing into trade barriers which may throttle trade movement as the emergency diminishes. The aforementioned airgrams fully explain not only the proposed rollback but the general objective of effecting further simplification by July 1, 1944.
Regarding the immediate proposal for rollback on five commodity groups, the Department impresses on Embassy two observations: (1) The effect of this rollback, as in the case of the rollback on January 1, is to transfer licensing control back to Washington, which the Department believes is a step in the right direction preparatory to further simplification and; (2) with the exception of one group (repair parts) the rollback should not be interpreted as indicating a general increase in supply; it will merely afford greater flexibility within restricted manufacturing and supply conditions and hence may mean slightly greater shipments than possible under the decentralization procedure.
The Department is constantly reviewing the documentary controls here with a view to a simplification, and while certain wartime controls related to supply assistance on critical commodities will continue necessary so long as supply is restricted there is the hope that the form of these controls, as well as the number of documents required, may be simplified. In certain cases it may be possible on or shortly after July 1, 1944 to return more commodities to general license depending, of course, on the military developments.
The Department wishes to emphasize most strongly that missions should, in conversations with the foreign governments, stress constantly the desire that all unnecessary wartime controls as regards imports into those countries be eliminated, and that such minimum controls as may be considered indispensable at this time be simplified. This is in line with our established trade policy to liberate commerce from controls which have been made necessary by the war just as rapidly as war conditions permit, and to avoid wartime controls being continued beyond the period of the emergency. Acceptance of this general principle will facilitate negotiation of further rollbacks.