267. Letter From the Under Secretary of State (Ball) to Senator Clair Engle0
Dear Senator Engle: Your letter of February 20,1 which was signed also by Senator Magnuson and by Senator Jackson, expresses your concern that the European Economic Community’s import regulations for poultry will “price US poultry out of Community markets”.
I share your concern. We have been carefully watching this development for at least a year and no problem has received more high-level [Page 577] attention. The President has sent letters to Chiefs of State. Secretary Rusk and I have each strongly pressed the case for poultry exports with Chiefs of State, Foreign and Economic Ministers, and other high-level officials of the European governments concerned. Our Missions abroad, acting under strong instructions from Washington, have sought every opportunity to try to promote a satisfactory solution, from the point of view of American poultry interests.
These efforts have been closely coordinated with parallel efforts by Secretary Freeman and the Department of Agriculture.
In spite of all this, I am sorry to report that we can so far report only very limited success. The EEC has now undertaken to re-examine the application and scale of certain of the charges applied to poultry imports. To prepare for the review, the United States Government and the EEC officials recently met in Brussels for a detailed examination of the technical issues. It is likely that the EEC Commission will recommend certain changes favorable to imports. We expect the EEC Council of Ministers to consider these questions early this month. Action in the EEC Council will, however, require unanimity, and there is reason to fear that at least one member state of the EEC may object to modifications of the import system for poultry.
United States exports of poultry to the Federal Republic of Germany (our major market in the EEC) have seriously declined since last August, but they have not yet been reduced “to nearly nothing”, as your letter suggests. Our total exports of poultry to the Federal Republic increased from 137.7 million pounds in 1961 to 152.3 million in 1962. Of the 1962 figure, 38.5 million pounds were shipped to Germany during the last five months of 1962 when the common agricultural policy for poultry was in effect. Also, as of August 1, 1962, (the effective date of the common agricultural policy), stocks of poultry in Germany amounted to some 88.2 million pounds. The existence of these stocks undoubtedly contributed to the decline in US exports in the past several months.
I am under no illusions, however, as to the disastrous effect of these greatly increased import charges if they are not promptly revised. They will make it difficult or impossible for US poultry exporters to compete with EEC poultry producers. We are, therefore, planning to make use of every practicable measure to secure their reduction. If the present line of effort does not succeed, we shall try to find a solution through the forthcoming negotiations under the Trade Expansion Act.
I am sending a similar letter to Senators Magnuson and Jackson.
Sincerely yours,
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, INCO-POULTRY US. No classification marking. Drafted by Under Secretary Ball on March 6. The source text bears Ball’s initials as drafter, but it was drafted in E and forwarded to Ball under cover of a February memorandum from Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs Johnson who recommended that Ball sign the proposed reply. Also attached to the source text is a February 25 memorandum from P. W. Kriebel (S/S-S) to Marilyn H. Moninger (E), which requested that a response to the three Senators’ letter of February 20 (Document 260) be ready for Ball’s signature by 5 p.m. on February 26, specifically refuting the statement in the letter that U.S. poultry exports to Germany have been reduced to “nearly nothing.”↩
- Document 260.↩
- Printed from a copy that indicates Ball signed the original.↩