58. Minutes of Meeting of the Balance of Payments Advisory Committee1
The Balance of Payments Advisory Committee of the Department of Commerce met at 2:30 p.m. on April 28, 1965 in Room 5855 of the Department of Commerce.
Mr. Nickerson called the meeting to order, and asked Mr. Morton to report on the progress of the public education campaign about the balance of payments voluntary program for the business community. Mr. Morton described the campaign with examples from all of the major [Page 149] media. He also suggested a meeting in the reasonably near future at which each member of the Advisory Committee might send the public relations representative of his firm to consider better use of this resource in support of the voluntary program. The proposal was accepted.
Mr. Nickerson then called upon Secretary Connor and Dr. Brimmer for a review of the voluntary program to date. This covered the following:
- 1.
- A report and discussion on the unofficial balance of payments figures for the first quarter.
- 2.
- Consideration of the effects which our balance of payments program appear to be having on Western European capital markets.
- 3.
- A review of the incomplete data compiled on the basis of the 344 companies which had submitted summary work sheets as of April 23, and a discussion in tentative terms of some of the issues indicated by the data.
- 4.
- A review and discussion of the progress report which the Secretary would present to the President at a meeting later in the afternoon.
- 5.
- A consideration of the merits of making available to the public the list of participants in the voluntary program. The consensus on this point was that it would be unwise to publish such a list at this stage, but the question should be reconsidered after the results are all in.
Dr. Brimmer pointed out that the form for the quarterly reports will follow the format for the summary work sheets sent out with the Secretary’s initial letter.2 Only historical data will be requested.
He then asked for views on the merits of establishing guidelines for the treatment of short term financial assets held abroad. After considerable discussion, it was agreed that issuance of such a guideline would be desirable and that it should ask companies to bring their overseas balances of short term financial assets down to the level of December 31, 1964 and, if possible, down to the level of December 31, 1963.
A draft of a proposed letter from Secretary Connor to United States affiliates of foreign corporations was presented, discussed and agreed to be appropriate.
The Committee considered briefly a suggestion that the United States tax laws be amended to permit a U.S. base corporation to enjoy deferral of its earnings from foreign operations similar to that already enjoyed by U.S.-owned foreign corporations. The Committee recommended that the Commerce Department consider the merits and demerits of this suggestion with other departments of the Government to see what action might be appropriate.
Discussion also took place on (1) the desirability of greater attention to the Export expansion effort, (2) liberalization of the Export-Import Bank financing and (3) the effect of the Federal Reserve Board’s 105% [Page 150] rule on the financing of exports and of transactions in less developed countries.
Monday, July 12 was selected as the tentative date for the next meeting of the Advisory Committee, subject to confirmation. It was agreed that the technical committee should meet at least one week earlier.
Mr. Nickerson then adjourned the meeting.
Secretary
- Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 40, Records of the Executive Secretariat, Office of the Secretary, 1965–1966: FRC 71 A 6617, Balance of Payments Committee for the Department of Commerce, July–December. No classification marking. A list of participants is not printed; all members of the Balance of Payments Advisory Committee of the Department of Commerce (see Document 44) attended except Fred J. Borch, Carl J. Gilbert, and Elisha Gray II. Also attending from the Commerce Department were: Secretary Connor, Andrew Brimmer, Alexander Trowbridge, Lawrence C. McQuade, and James G. Morton. George F. James, Socony Mobil Oil Company, attended as a technical alternate.↩
- See Document 52 and footnote 3 thereto.↩