P.M. BRIEFING : Japanese Firms to Aid Soviets
Six major Japanese trading houses plan to offer $1-billion worth of food and other goods to the Soviet Union in exchange for crude oil, a spokesman for one of the companies said today.
The Nissho Iwai Corp. spokesman said his company and Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui & Co., C. Itoh & Co., Sumitomo Corp. and Marubeni Corp. plan to provide food, medicine and computers. He said the deal is being arranged at the request of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
The spokesman declined to comment on a report in the Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun today that the trading houses and the LDP would send a mission to Moscow next week to finalize the plan.
The Japanese government announced a separate aid plan in December under which it will donate $7.46 million in food and medicine and make a $100-million loan to the Soviet Union.
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