FOREIGN ECONOMIC AND COMMERCIAL POLICY


  As far as United States interests are concerned, it might well be
argued that any measure which may compel us to account more fully
for our short-supply export control activities to other countries is
objectionable and should, on principle, be avoided. On the other hand,
the United States is a heavy net importer of raw materials; measures
taken by other countries to restrict their exports of these materials
along inequitable lines could probably do the United States a good
deal (more harm than the need to account for the equity of United
States measures. Indeed, since other countries are far less uninhibited
than the United States in using short-supply items as weapons in bar-
gaining for various types of economic advantage, the probability is
that the more effective application of rules of the game regarding ex-
port restrictions, such as those contained in the GATT, would be of
substantial net advantage to the United States. As far as the unilateral
actions of individual countries are concerned, the prospect of having
to report such measures to the Contracting Parties might have a salu-
tary effect in insuring the development of such measures on a more
equitable basis. The prospect of such a review might also have a salu-
tary effect upon the content of international allocation agreements of
commodities in short supply, by sensitizing the participating countries
to the relevant provisions of the GATT.
  The OEEC is currently developing a study of export restrictions
which are in effect among OEEC countries. While this study would not
substitute for an analysis which is worldwide in scope, it will never-
theless provide most of the material which the European countries
would need to comply with.any GATT-sponsored request for informa-
tion. Accordingly, the QEEC study removes much of the justification
for any complaint on the part of European countries that the reporting
burden related to a GATT request would be difficult for them to bear.


International Trade Files, Lot 57D284, Box:112, Folder "Export Restrictions"
Working Paper of the United States Delegation to the Fifth Session of
                  the Contracting Parties to GATT
RESTRICTED    LIMITED C             [TORQUAY,] 12 December, 1950.
GATT/CP.5/39/Rev. 1
         A REVIEW OF QUANTITATIVE EXPORT RESTRICTIONS
                NOTE BY THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
  At the Fourth Session the Working Party on Quantitative Restric-
tions suggested that it was desirable to carry out an enquiry on


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