Trade: Contracts, not Contrasts

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Since 1949, under the Export Control Act passed to keep strategic goods out of possibly unfriendly hands, U.S. businessmen who wanted to trade with Communist nations had to obtain special licenses to ship even such seemingly nonstrategic items as breakfast cereal and suspenders. Last month, however, in an effort to build better trade relations, president Johnson relaxed many of the barriers. Such definitely hostile nations as North Viet Nam, North Korea and Cuba remain on a no-trade list; but for others like Russia, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, restrictions have been eased. Off the license list came more than 400 items, including textiles, metals, chemicals and machinery.

Traveling in Europe last week, Commerce Secretary John T. Connor used a forum of German and U.S. businessmen in Bonn to explain why. The U.S., said Connor, "is coming to recognize the existence of a second avenue of approach to the European Communist World," is moving "slowly but deliberately" toward separating trade and politics. "We would rather discuss contracts than contrasts," the Commerce Secretary said. "We do not foresee dramatic results from this effort in the near future, particularly because of the ramifications of Viet Nam. But we have hopes of building some fairly strong bridges as time goes on."