Office of the Historian

279. Memorandum of Conversation0

Washington, January 10, 1963, noon.

SUBJECT

  • Trade

PARTICIPANTS

  • U.S.
    • The Secretary
    • John C. Guthrie, Director, SOV
  • U.S.S.R.
    • Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kuznetsov, First Deputy Foreign Minister
    • Antoliy F. Dobrynin, Soviet Ambassador
    • Lev Isaakovich Mendelevich, Assistant to Kuznetsov
    • Viktor Pavlovich Karpov, First Secretary of Embassy (Interpreter)

At the end of his conversation with the Secretary,1 Kuznetsov observed that U.S.-Soviet trade had just about dried up. The Secretary replied that there were two problems in connection with this trade, one being a trade problem in that the Soviets merely buy samples while the other is a political problem.

Kuznetsov rejoined that he understood the political problem but disputed the Secretaryʼs charge that the USSR only bought samples. He handed the Secretary a report which had been prepared for him by Amtorg on the state ofUSSR-US trade relations. The report made the following points:

1.
The United States Department of Commerce had stated that from October 23, 1962 no more licenses would be issued for the export of American goods to the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. According to the press this ban was of a temporary nature only. However, even before the adoption of this decision the Department of Commerce had been holding up applications for licenses on goods ordered by the USSR. Since 1961 the Department of Commerce has issued licenses for only 10% of the total sum of Soviet orders.
2.
In September 1962 a cargo of Soviet-owned sugar was detained in Puerto Rico. In October 1962 a Federal court in San Juan determined that the sugar was the property of an agency of the Soviet Government. However, the local court in San Juan did not release the detained cargo [Page 606] and the ship sailed from San Juan in November, having left 15,000 tons detained by the American authorities.
3.
The Longshoremenʼs Labor Union of the Atlantic Coast Mexican Gulf instituted in October 1962 a boycott on handling Soviet cargoes and ships which formerly used to call at Cuban ports. As a result many Soviet cargoes have not been unloaded, including the personal luggage of Soviet citizens. These actions by the Union inflict material damage both to Soviet and American trading firms and individuals and call for action by the American authorities.

  1. Source: Department of State, Secretaryʼs Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 65 D 330. Secret. Drafted by Guthrie and approved in S on January 16. The meeting was held in the Secretaryʼs office.↩
  2. See Document 278.↩