per 1935-39. United States imports constituted 9 Of the dutiable wools imported into the United States in the years 1937-39, 35 percent were Australian, 22 percent Argentine, 15 percent Uruguayan, 13 percent New Zealand, and 4 percent South African (Cape). Wartime Apparel-Wool Programs United States wartime mill consumption of apparel wool was almost double the pre-war rate, averaging more than 1 billion pounds grease basis for the years 1941-45. Domestic-wool production equalled approximately 43 percent of the requirements for the country's war economy. During the period of rearmament and in the early war years, it was the policy of the United States to stockpile foreign wools and to encourage domestic-wool production through the payment of price premiums because of the possibility that trade with the exporting countries might be partially cut off. Stockpile Programs In 1940, the National Defense Advisory Commission recommended the establishment of an emergency stockpile of foreign wools in the United States to provide for essential requirements in the event imports were curtailed. At the request of the United States Government, the United Kingdom Government agreed in December 1940 to store ETING, PRE IONAL [ENT, ICAN PARA TION 946 1455 A4 no. 98 fense Supplies Corporation would accept for storage at 900 million pounds actual weight and obligated the Ministry of Supply to keep a minimum of 400 million pounds in this stockpile. These stocks were to be available to both countries should they be required to meet "strategic needs". Shipments to the United States under this agreement were terminated in September 1943. Transportation and storage charges were to be shared equally by the Ministry of Supply and the Defense Supplies Corporation until one year following the end of hostilities. The agreement also provided that, upon the general suspension of all hostilities, the stockpile could not be disposed of in the United States without a further understanding between the Governments of the United States and United Kingdom having first been reached. The maximum quantity warehoused in the United States under this stockpile program was 518 million pounds actual weight, the major portion of which had been reexported before the terminal date of the agreement. In December 1943 the War Production Board approved the release of the stocks of foreign wool which had been purchased by the Defense Supplies Corporation, and they were subsequently liquidated through sales at public auction and to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Wool-purchase agreements between the United Kingdom and the Southern Hemisphere Dominions facilitated the making of arrangements for stockpiling in the United States. At the outbreak |