Historical Documents - Office of the Historian

Washington, August 7, 1970.

1.: Following yesterday’s meeting here at the White House,2 which you attended, Harlow and Flanigan raised again with the President the issue of our posture on the trade bill.3 The President reaffirmed that he would veto any bill which forced him to apply quotas on shoes or any other product beyond textiles. However, he did authorize efforts to improve the bill on the possibility that he might sign it if his hand was not forced on quotas.
2.: Harlow is thus working on the ASP deal which we discussed yesterday, to try to get it back into the bill. George Shultz is doing the same with Labor. Flanigan and Secretary Stans are working on the textile people. The Ways and Means Committee will act on ASP on Monday.
3.: On textile negotiations, State is committing GATT Director General Long’s proposal to paper.4 They will then check it with him, to see if it accurately conveys his ideas. Commerce, State, and we in the White House will then get together to see if it represents a proposal we could accept. Finally, we could then check with the Japanese on the possibility of new talks based on the Long proposals, and decide whether to start negotiations with Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Subject Files, Box 401, Trade General, Volume II 4/70-12/70. Secret; Limdis. A stamped notation, dated August 11, reads: “HAK has seen.”↩
Not further identified.↩
Harlow and Flanigan met with the President from 3:42 to 4:04 p.m. (National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, White House Central Files, President’s Daily Diary)↩
Presumably a reference to Long’s proposal at the July 31-August 1 quadripartite talks in Geneva; see Document 240.↩

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume IV, Foreign Assistance, International Development, Trade Policies, 1969–1972