Office of the Historian

327. CIEP Study Memorandum No. 21

Washington, March 13, 1971.

MEMORANDUM FOR

  • The Secretary of State
  • The Secretary of the Treasury
  • The Secretary of Agriculture
  • The Secretary of Commerce
  • The Secretary of Labor
  • The Director, Office of Management and Budget
  • The Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers
  • The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
  • The Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs
  • The Special Representative for Trade Negotiations

SUBJECT

  • East-West Trade

National Security Decision Memorandum 992 recorded the President’s decision to take no policy initiatives with respect to East-West trade at this time. At the present time, there are also major questions about the magnitude and availability of such trade opportunities.

Thus, the President believes it would be useful to have a more definitive understanding of the size and nature of trade and investment opportunities in the USSR and Eastern European countries and of any special commercial problems (e.g. financing) should circumstances arise in which a change in policy might be wise.

I am, therefore, asking the Secretary of Commerce to designate a senior official to chair an inter-departmental working group to prepare a comprehensive factual and estimative paper on this subject by June 15, 1971. Defense should be invited to participate and perhaps, as well, such other concerned institutions as the Export-Import Bank and the Federal Reserve Board. Mr. Deane R. Hinton will be my representative in the working group.

The study should, as a minimum:

(1)
Describe and analyze the significance of existing levels, product categories, and patterns of trade and investment between Eastern European countries, on the one hand, and the US and our major free world competitors, on the other.
(2)
Set forth the facts, not only as concerns the US but also, where appropriate, as far as our major allies and international agreements or understandings are involved, concerning:
(a)
export controls on goods and technology;
(b)
financial limitations on both trade and investment;
(c)
import restrictions—both tariffs and NTB’s;
(d)
shipping limitations; and
(e)
attitudinal limitations on the part of business, labor, and government.
(3)
Estimate the potential magnitude of US trade and investment in the USSR and the various Eastern European countries five years from now, assuming expansion-oriented US trade, credit, and investment policies.

Peter G. Peterson
  1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, S/S Files: Lot 82 D 126, CIEP Study Memoranda. Confidential. A copy was sent to the Secretary of Defense.↩
  2. Document 325.↩