33. Telegram From Secretary of State Rusk to the Department of State1
Secto 23. Eyes only for President and Acting Secretary from Secretary. Had one hour talk with Kosygin at Soviet Embassy accompanied by Bowles.2 Soviet Ambassador and one Soviet FonOff official also present.
After exchange amenities Kosygin raised question of trade and complained of interference by USG, especially State Department and [Page 77] me personally, with trade possibilities which would be agreeable to US private interests and Soviet Government. I went over with him steps being taken to review east-west trade by Executive Branch, Senate Foreign Relations Committee and private groups such as Chamber of Commerce. I then outlined problems arising from (a) lack of strong economic basis for substantial trade increases on bilateral basis between two economies which historically have not traded significantly with each other; (b) matters of trade practices such as patents, copyrights, dumping and (c) legislative restrictions rooted in entire postwar history and US reactions to Stalinist pressures.
On (c) Kosygin said, in effect, let’s forget past and think about future. On (b) he said they would make any agreements needed under licensing to protect US technology and said they now admit personnel to check on licensing arrangements already made with Western countries. On (a) he said Soviets now have more to sell, beyond vodka and caviar, and could sell us, for example, continuous pouring steel plants superior to anything we now have. I said I knew of no legal obstacles to purchase of such plants by US private interests. He doubted this but I got impression he was referring to tentative discussions with US businessmen of exchange of steel plants for advanced chemical plants on which there probably would be a licensing problem.
[Here follows the remainder of the telegram, which is printed in Foreign Relations, 1964–1968, volume XVIII, Laos, Document 68.]