PLYWOOD CREDITS EYED BY REAGAN ADMINISTRATION
The Reagan administration is debating
whether to provide government credit guarantees for the export
of plywood, a U.S. Agriculture Department official said.
    As a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development, OECD, the United States has agreed not to
provide any concessional credits on the export of manufactured
products.
    However, USDA General Sales Manager Melvin Sims told
Reuters the administration is considering allowing USDA to
provide its first export credit guarantees for plywood on the
grounds it is not a manufactured product.
    Sims said it was clear that wood products such as
furniture, tables and window frames would be considered
manufactured goods and therefore ineligible for export credit
guarantees. However, the case of plywood was less clear.
    "As long as it's a basic material, we consider it still just
a processed version of the basic agricultural commodity," Sims
said in a telephone interview.
    Earlier today, USDA said that plywood was eligible under an
export credit guarantee offer for Turkey announced yesterday.
In its original announcement yesterday, USDA had said the offer
included three mln dlrs for the export of lumber, excluding
plywood. However, Sims said he did not expect any plywood
exports to be including under the lumber guarantee offer.
 Reuter
