54. Telegram From the Embassy in France to the Department of State0
3065. Eyes only for President from Dillon.
Dear Mr. President: During full day Ministerial session today1 agreement reached on IMF borrowing arrangement subject only to formal [Page 134] Cabinet approval where required, i.e., Canada, UK and maybe one or two others.2 Total resources expected to be $6.1 billion plus 3 or 4 hundred million on side agreement with Swiss. Exact figure subject to possible minor adjustment after Canadian Cabinet action as we are asking 250 from them instead of 200 which they had expected. Only substantive change in formula proposed by US was adoption of requirement for 2/3 majority of participating countries to activate borrowing release. This is additional to our proposal for 60 percent weighted majority and was adopted to satisfy Dutch who at first held out for unanimous decision which would have created unacceptable veto situation.
IMF Executive Board will consider and hopefully approve next week and participating countries will also exchange supplementary letters with French before end of year. Thus we will meet schedule set in Vienna of firm decision by year end so that necessary Parliamentary and Congressional action can proceed promptly.
Brief communique being issued tonight3 but documents remain classified until officially approved by govts such as Canada which require formal Cabinet approval.
Faithfully yours, Douglas.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 398.13/12-1361. Confidential; Priority.↩
- The Finance Ministers of Belgium, Canada, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States met in Paris on December 13.↩
- The agreement was formalized in an exchange of letters on consultative arrangements. For the approved texts of these letters, see the Supplement.↩
- Text transmitted in telegram 3066 from Paris, December 13. (Department of State, Central Files, 398.13/12-1361)↩