The U.S. Agriculture Department saidan announcement by the department yesterday concerning 15.0 mln
dlrs in additional credit guarantees for exports of U.S.
commodities to Turkey contained two inaccuracies.
    First, the USDA said its announcement should not have said
that plywood was excluded from the additional three mln dlrs in
GSM-102 credit guarantees for lumber.
    The original announcement said the guarantees included
three mln dlrs for lumber, except plywood.
    Melvin Sims, USDA general sales manager, told Reuters he
did not anticipate any plywood would be included in the sales,
but that "it's possible it would be."
    Plywood in the past has not been eligible for GSM-102
credit guarantees because it is considered by some to be a
manufactured product. Members states of the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development have pledged not to offer
concessional credits on manufactured products, Sims said.
    However, the Reagan administration is considering whether
to allow plywood sales to be covered by the credit guarantee
program, Sims said.
    Second, the USDA announcement said 6.0 mln dlrs of a
previously announced 6.0-mln dlr line for tallow under GSM-102
was available for both public and private sector importers.
    In fact, the line of credit guarantees for tallow is
available only for public sector importers, Walter Stern,
Foreign Agricultural Service Turkey analyst, said.
 Reuter
