48. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Allen) to the United States Trade Representative (Brock)1
SUBJECT
- Cancun and the Prospect of Global Negotiations
Your thinking tracks fully with my own on our approach to Cancun and global negotiations. It is time to take the offensive. The biggest benefit we can offer is our market, and if this economy gets moving again, developing countries will benefit enormously, including low income countries which export primarily raw materials and hence depend even more on economic conditions in the developed countries.
Do you think we can hold firm on a good MFA agreement from the standpoint of the developing countries? That will be important. Can [Page 147] the President point to our role in these negotiations at Cancun or will we have to keep a low profile?
On the matter of fully integrating more countries into GATT, can we put trade issues with developing countries more at the center of our strategy for the GATT Ministerial and subsequent trade talks? Many of these countries are now important markets for us, and the benefits are reciprocal. The objective is to coopt these countries into these institutions. Then they will see no need for global negotiations.
I will recommend that your ideas be incorporated fully into our Cancun strategy.
FOR THE PRESIDENT:
- Source: Reagan Library, Douglas McMinn Files, Economic Summit Files, Mexico—Policy. No classification marking. Bailey forwarded the memorandum to Allen under a September 16 covering memorandum. Under the same covering memorandum, Bailey also forwarded to Allen a September 14 memorandum from Brock to Allen in which Brock discussed the U.S. Government’s approach to Global Negotiations. Brock sent an identical memorandum to Haig. See Document 45.↩
- Allen signed “Dick” above his typed signature.↩