FOREIGN ECONOMIC AND COMMERCIAL POLICY


levels, and should be rebuilt through the addition of some portion of
the world's new gold production.
    10. When all is said and done, it is evident that if exports are to be
 maintained and there is to be curtailment in extraordinary assistance,
 the main burden of adjustment in our balance of payments must be
 accomplished by an increase in our imports of goods and services.
 If the total level of economic activity of the United States expands
 during the next few years, this will in itself lead to a considerable ex-
 pansion of imports. However, full achievement of this import objective
 will require the pursuit by the United States, and by other countries
 as well, of a program of concerted measures over a wide range of
 economic activities. It will, above all, require a change in our tradi-
 tional attitude towards imports, and a willingness to place the eco-
 nomic interests of the nation as a whole, plus its international political
 and security interests, above the special interests of particular groups
 which may have to face increased competition from abroad.
   11. It is important that we face the future now. We cannot delay
 until the end of the ERP period. As grants are diminished, the new
 pattern will take shape. The immediate necessity is the determination
 of the broad lines of policy, the development of a program of specific
 measures to achieve the purposes set forth in such a policy, and the
 assignment of responsibility within the government for implementing
 the program. Simultaneously, the problem and the program must be
 explained to the people, and ways must be found to enlist public inter-
 est and support. As one step in this effort, consideration should be
 given promptly to the establishment of a committee of leading public
 citizens to prepare recommendations for consideration by the Presi-
 dent.

                          Editorial Note
   On March 2, the Departmental Dollar Working Group (DDG)
was established in the Department of State under the chairmanship
of the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Thorp), to
consider and prepare the State Department positions concerning the
overall question of adjusting the balance of payments of the United
States (or the problem of the "dollar gap"). It was intended further
that the group would perform as a "departmental backstop" for De-
partment of State participants in the interdepartmental machinery
which it was then (in March) presumed would be set up to accomplish
the task set forth in the Secretary of State's memorandum of Feb-
ruary 16 to President Truman. The DDG was to have a regular mem-
bership of representatives from the economic and geographic offices
and the Policy Planning Staff. (Lot 122, Box 15559, Folder "DDG
Working Papers," Doc. DDG D-1, March 2, 1950)


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