Department of External Affairs memorandum for Cabinet
'Exports of foodstuffs to Czechoslovakia'

Comments of the Minister for External Affairs on the Memorandum submitted to the Government by the Minister for Agriculture on the 30th October, 1948.¹

In connection with the Memorandum of the 30th October in which the Minister for Agriculture raises the question whether, in view of the affiliation with the Cominform of the present governmental regime in Czechoslovakia, that country should be regarded as eligible for food shipments from Ireland in the course of trade, the Minister for External Affairs desires to submit the following views for the Government's consideration:-

• As a general rule, the injection of foreign policy considerations into trade relations is open to serious question in principle and liable to entail embarrassing consequences in practice. In particular, a policy of restricting trade relations with countries of whose Governments or policies one does not approve inevitably carries with it the implication that one approves of the Governments and policies of the countries with which one continues to trade. It is not desirable that our foreign trade relations should become mixed up with political considerations in that way;
• The policy of restricting trade with Czechoslovakia on the grounds suggested would run counter to one of the basic aims of the European Recovery Programme - the restoration and development of trade between eastern and western Europe. The development of this trade, as a means of diminishing abnormal European demands on the Western Hemisphere, particularly for food and fuel, was specifically recommended by President Truman when he presented the Economic Co-operation Bill to Congress last December. Congress emphatically endorsed the principle which is now generally accepted as a basic objective of E.R.P. Mr. Hoffman, the E.C.A. Administrator, has recently made it clear that the desire of the U.S. Government to prevent the flow of military supplies and materials to eastern European countries is not to be taken as implying any alteration in the American Government's view of the importance of developing normal trade between eastern and western Europe;
• In embarking on a policy of restricting food shipments to Czechoslovakia in the course of trade, we would be doing something which influential agencies of world opinion with outlooks similar to our own have not thought necessary or desirable. It is known, for example, that the National Catholic Welfare Conference in Washington continues to ship food to Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania and other countries in eastern Europe so far as local regulations allow them to do so;
• The sale of Irish foodstuffs to Czechoslovakia at what our exporters regard as a favourable price is not necessarily to be regarded as an advantage or favour conferred on that country. Our exporters presumably secure an attractive commercial profit and the transaction absorbs Czechoslovakia's supplies of foreign exchange which might otherwise be spent on things more harmful to the general interest. On the other hand, a decision not to sell foodstuffs to Czechoslovakia would be to deny our exporters opportunities of profitable trade without thereby securing any compensating advantage;
• If the export of canned meat and other foodstuffs to Czechoslovakia are restricted and the products concerned have, in consequence, to be sold elsewhere at less favourable prices, there is no assurance that the vendors will not take advantage of the higher Czechoslovak prices to re-export the products to that country, thereby nullifying our efforts at restriction and making intermediaries in third countries a present of profit margins which legitimately belong to Irish exporters.