Trade with Japan
Thank you for your memorandum of 30th March giving the background
to the advices we have received recently from the United Kingdom
on this subject. [1]

For your information, the newly installed Japanese Embassy in
Canberra is pressing for a relaxation of import restrictions on
Japanese goods. Embassy officers have been discussing the matter
with the Department of Trade and Customs for some weeks and on the
27th March the attached note [2] was presented to the Department
of External Affairs.

As you know the Department of Trade and Customs has been aware of
the problem for some time and has been conscious that the chief
difficulty on our side is that any significant increase in the
list of goods which may be licensed for import from Japan would
very likely include goods whose import from Japan would raise
political objections. Some relaxations were made last month to
permit the import from Japan of certain types of goods, which are
available from other sources, but they are not expected to add up
to much. We understand that the Department of Trade and Customs is
still examining in detail the possible scope for further
relaxations.