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.
  

