Office of the Historian

269. Memorandum From the Under Secretary of State (Ball) to President Kennedy0

Washington, March 7, 1963.

SUBJECT

  • Your Conversation with Senator Pastore Regarding Wool Textile Imports

Mr. Feldman called me tonight to discuss the possible steps that the Administration might take in order to show some further effort toward meeting the import problem of the woolen textile industry. I told Mr. Feldman I thought that the Administration had already developed a very creditable record of action on behalf of the textile industry. I have pointed out the extent and character of this action in another memorandum I have just sent you.1

Mr. Feldman and I agreed, however, that we would take one further step. This would consist of Secretary Rusk calling in the ambassadors of the principal woolen textile importing countries—principally the United Kingdom and Italy. On careful reflection I strongly advise against calling in the Japanese Ambassador in view of the fact that the Japanese Government has told us that it is planning to challenge our method of administering the Cotton Textile Agreement in the GATT. We have too much riding on that agreement to put it in jeopardy by a Japanese withdrawal.

Secretary Rusk would say to the ambassadors that the Administration is under great pressure from the woolen textile industry who are feeling the effects of a sharp rise in wool textile imports. This pressure could become so severe as to compel restrictive action.

In view of the fact that the principal exporting nations have already made emphatically clear that they reject a multilateral agreement for wool textiles, the Secretary would suggest that they help to ease the domestic pressure in the United States by advising their industries to show restraint in the buildup of the volume of their exports.

I have discussed this course of action with Secretary Rusk, and he concurs.

I am under no illusion that this will satisfy the wool textile industry or that it will have a serious effect on imports. But it is the most we dare do under all the circumstances.

George W. Ball
  1. Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Kaysen Series, Trade Policy, Trade Expansion. Confidential.↩
  2. Document 268.↩