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The Reparations Settlement and Germany's Peacetime Economy: Statement by the U.S. State Department (Press Release of December 12, 1945)

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(d) Sufficient resources should be left to Germany to enable that country, after completion of industrial removals and reactivation of remaining resources, to exist without external assistance. This topic is more fully treated below.

7. In planning the peacetime German economy, the interests of the United States are confined to the industrial disarmament of Germany and to the provision of a balanced economic position at the standard of living indicated. The United States does not seek to eliminate or weaken German industries of a peaceful character, in which Germany has produced effectively for world markets, for the purpose of protecting American markets from German goods, aiding American exports, or for any other selfish advantage. Similarly the United States is opposed to the attempt of any other country to use the industrial disarmament plan of the Berlin Declaration to its own commercial ends at the expense of a peacetime German economy. It is our desire to see Germany's economy geared to a world system and not an autarchical system.

8. In determining the volume of removals for reparation purposes, the United States should not approve removals on such a scale that Germany would be unable, owing to a shortage of capital equipment, to export goods in sufficient quantities to pay for essential imports. Thus capacity should be left to enable Germany to produce for export goods which yield enough foreign exchange to pay for the imports required for a standard of living equal to the average in Europe, excluding the United Kingdom and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In this connection, the following points should be stressed:

(a) In determining the amount of capital equipment to be retained in Germany, provision need be made for capacity to produce exports sufficient to pay for estimated current imports. No allowance should be made in German export industry to provide capacity to pay for externally incurred occupation costs, including imports of goods consumed by forces of occupation, and troop pay not expended in Germany.

(b) The provision in the Berlin Declaration which stipulates that in organizing the German economy 'primary emphasis shall be given to the development of agricultural and peaceful domestic industries' requires that the maximum possible provision be made for exports from sources other than the metal, machinery, and chemical industries.

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