Office of the Historian

284. Briefing Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Solomon) to the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Mann)1

Washington, September 13, 1965.

SUBJECT

  • Your Meeting with Latin American Ambassadors, Tuesday, September 14, 5:00 p.m. on Sugar Agreement

We have asked the Latin American Ambassadors interested in sugar to come in for a preliminary explanation of what the United States hopes to accomplish at the September 20–October 15 negotiations for a new international sugar agreement.

The four major Latin American countries which supply sugar to the United States (Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Dominican Republic) plus Nicaragua and Costa Rica have been invited to the meeting.

You can take the occasion to introduce members of the United States Delegation: Horace Godfrey, Administrator, Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, Chairman of the U.S. Delegation, Edward P. Fried, Vice-Chairman, Tom Murphy, and Paul Callanan, Alternates.2

[Page 711]

The following talking points may be useful to you:

1.
Our purpose at the UN Sugar Conference in Geneva September 20 will be to help OAS and other friendly sugar producing countries (British Commonwealth, China, etc.) to work out an agreement as helpful to them as possible.
2.
We will not compromise our sugar program and their special position in our market.
3.
Our view of the best obtainable agreement is one with effective controls on exports, with stock holding requirements and with prompt, automatic sanctions on those who violate the Agreement.
4.
The desire of Cuba and the Soviet Bloc to have generous quotas and freedom of action, e.g., to re-export each other’s sugar and to trade unfilled export quotas among themselves will be crucial in the Conference. Cuba has already threatened a long-term sugar war. We consider that there is a direct conflict of interest between the Soviet Bloc and Cuba on the one hand and the OAS and other sugar producers on the other regarding the size of quotas and the effectiveness of the agreement’s mechanism and institution.
5.
So long as the OAS sugar producers stand up for their own interests in the face of Cuban threats and blandishments, we believe we can support them fully. We think the United Kingdom and most of the Commonwealth will do the same and hope such participants as the EEC countries, Canada and Japan will also do so although we expect some initial hesitation.
6.
Our Delegation will try to work very closely with the OAS group and will always be available to it.

  1. Source: Department of State, EB/ICD/TRP Files: Lot 75 D 462, INCO–Sugar, UN Sugar Conference, Sept. 1965. No classification marking. Drafted by Miklos Szabo-Pelsoczi and Jack B. Button on September 13 and cleared by Edward R. Fried (OR), George R. Jacobs (ICD), and Jean H. Mulliken (ARA).↩
  2. In the margin next to this paragraph is a handwritten note: “may be here.”↩