Negotiations which have been under way between Japanese Ambassador Tatékawa and Soviet Trade Commissar Mikoyan in Moscow since February 17, 1941, on a Japan-Soviet commercial pact and a pact concerning their trade and payment have made favourable headway, as a result of a mutual spirit of compromise, and the Japanese Government has gone
through necessary procedures for the drafting of the two pacts.
The Japan-Soviet commercial pact will be valid for five years after its enforcement and will continue to be valid automatically, unless either of the two contracting parties makes a proposal for abrogation. The pact involves items connected with export and import duties, restrictions on export and import, ships and cargo, customs procedures, tonnage dues, harbour dues, pilot fees and others, all of which will be given the most-favoured-nation treatment.
The trade and payment pact will be valid for one year and, if either of the contracting parties does not propose abrogation, it will be valid automatically for another one-year period. It includes an agreement that export and import totals be made equal. Exports for one year consist of raw silk, cocoons, machines, instruments, camphor oil, general merchandise and others totalling ¥30,000,000 in all. Imports for the same period will be petroleum products, manganese ore, platinum, fertilizer, and general merchandise of the same value. Payments will be made on the yen basis in principle.