Office of the Historian

370. Telegram From the President’s Deputy Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bator) to President Johnson, in Texas1

Washington, June 30, 1967, 1757Z.

CAP 67614. Subject: Textiles and the Kennedy Round.

You may receive inquiries from the Hill about the final Kennedy Round arrangements on cotton textiles. Some textile interests are worried that we have not protected ourselves. I won’t bother you with the technical details, but the gist of the settlement is as follows:

1.
The U.S., the European Economic Community and Japan have each attached reservations to the Kennedy Round agreement providing for a “snap-back” of the cuts in cotton textile tariffs if the Long-Term Arrangement (LTA) is not renewed again three years from now. In other words, for each of us the Kennedy Round tariff cuts on cotton textiles are tied to the duration of the Long-Term Arrangement.
2.
Thus, we are fully protected as the other major parties against any failure of LTA negotiations in 1970.
3.
The present three-year renewal of the LTA2 is a direct consequence of the cuts in U.S. cotton textile tariffs negotiated in the Kennedy Round. Without these cuts, there would be no LTA now. This would be the worst of all possible worlds for the industry.

I will be glad to give you more details at any time.

As you know from the ticker, the bargain was signed early this morning our time. We are hard at work on the Hill.

  1. Source: Johnson Library, Bator Papers, Kennedy Round Windup, Box 13. Confidential. Sent through Walt Rostow. The President was at the LBJ Ranch.↩
  2. Reference is to the Protocol Extending the Arrangement Regarding Trade in Cotton Textiles of 1 October 1962, done at Geneva May 1, 1967, and entered into force October 1, 1967; 18 UST 1337.↩