Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume IX, International Development and Economic Defense Policy; Commodities

157. Memorandum From Acting Secretary of State Ball to President Johnson¹

Washington, May 13, 1964.

SUBJECT

• Export-Import Bank Guarantee on Non-Agricultural Products for Rumania and Poland

Recommendation

That you authorize the Department’s representatives, if the climate of the forthcoming talks with the Rumanians and Poles so warrants, to refer to the possibility of extending Export-Import Bank guarantees on short and medium term commercial credits for the sale of these countries of non-agricultural products from the United States.²

Discussion

On February 4, 1964 in accordance with Title III of the Foreign Aid and Related Agencies Appropriation Act of 1964, you determined that it was in the national interest for the Export-Import Bank to issue guarantees in connection with the sale of United States agricultural products to the USSR, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Rumania.³ In Secretary Rusk’s memorandum of January 14, 1964, recommending the above action, he noted that at a subsequent time your approval might be sought for extending guarantees to these Soviet bloc countries to include non-agricultural as well as agricultural products.⁴

I believe that political circumstances in the cases of Rumania and Poland now make it advisable in terms of the national interest to consider extending guarantees on sales of non-agricultural products to these two countries. These circumstances are discussed in the enclosed memorandum.⁵

The Export-Import Bank has advised me that, subject to the Bank’s obtaining information from Rumania and Poland that will enable the Bank to satisfy itself as to the financial capacity to repay the credits being guaranteed, the Bank is prepared to issue guarantees on a case-by-case basis in connection with sales of all types of United States products and services if it were determined to be in the national interest. The credit terms of such sales would not exceed those normally encountered in international commercial transactions and in any case would not exceed five years. I am not at this time requesting you to make a formal determination that it is the national interest for the Export-Import Bank to issue such guarantees. Rather, you are requested to approve our using the possibility of such a determination in discussions with the Rumanians and the Poles with the view that if we are satisfied with these discussions on trade, financial and political grounds, I would then recommend that a determination be made by you that the issuance of such guarantees by the Export-Import Bank would be in the national interest.

George W. Ball

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, AID(US) 15–10. Confidential. An attached copy of the memorandum indicates that it was drafted by Peter F. Warker (EUR/EE) on May 8 and concurred in by U, E, L/E, E/MDC, the Export-Import Bank, and the White House.
2. The President initialed his approval on May 21.
3. No further record of this February 4 determination has been found.
4. Document 148.
5. Undated, not printed. Attached to this memorandum is telegram 486 to Bucharest, April 7, instructing the Legation to extend an invitation to Romanian officials to visit Washington for discussions on economic and related subjects. Also attached is a May 8 memorandum from Philip H. Trezise (E) to Acting Secretary Ball, indicating that a Romanian delegation would be coming to Washington the week of May 18 and asking him to sign the memorandum. Documentation on this visit is in vol. XVII, pp. 389–397.