Export Control Act (US, 1940)

Section 6 of the Act of 2 July 1940 gave the President temporary power to prohibit or curtail exports of designated defence-related goods. Congress subsequently broadened the authority and extended its duration. It expired on 28 February 1949, when the separate Export Control Act (US, 1949) took effect. The successor Act expressly preserved outstanding administrative actions until amended or revoked. 1940 Act, section 6; 1949 Act, section 11.

Original authority and first controls

The original delegation applied when the President considered restrictions necessary for national defence. It covered military equipment, munitions, components, and machinery, tools, materials or supplies needed for their manufacture, servicing or operation. The President had to describe the controlled articles and materials in proclamations. The initial expiry date was 30 June 1942, unless Congress provided otherwise. 1940 Act, section 6, 54 Stat. 714.

Proclamation 2413, signed on 2 July 1940, required licences from 5 July for specified arms and military equipment, basic materials, chemicals, aircraft components and machine tools. It vested administration in the Administrator of Export Control and empowered the Secretary of State to issue or refuse licences under the President's rules and regulations or specific directives from the Administrator. A licensing requirement was not a blanket refusal of every application. The White House's accompanying statement identified domestic defence needs and shortages as the stated rationale. Proclamation 2413, 54 Stat. 2712-2714; White House press release, 2 July 1940.

Amendments and duration

The territorial amendment of 28 May 1941 extended section 6 to US territories, dependencies and possessions, including the Philippine Islands, the Canal Zone and the District of Columbia. On 30 June 1942 Congress rewrote section 6 to cover any articles, technical data, materials or supplies. The revised provision assigned administration to the Board of Economic Warfare unless the President directed otherwise, retained criminal penalties for violations, and set a 30 June 1944 expiry with earlier termination mechanisms. 1941 amendment, 55 Stat. 206; 1942 amendment, 56 Stat. 463.

The later statutory sequence was:

• The Act approved on 1 July 1944 replaced the Board of Economic Warfare with the Foreign Economic Administration in section 6(b) and substituted 30 June 1945 for the previous expiry date. The approval date is recorded as printed; it should not be silently moved to 30 June. 58 Stat. 671.
• The Acts of 30 June 1945 and 23 May 1946 substituted expiry dates of 30 June 1946 and 30 June 1947 respectively. 59 Stat. 270; 60 Stat. 215.
• The joint resolution of 30 June 1947 extended the deadline to 15 July 1947. Section 4 of the Second Decontrol Act of 1947, approved on 15 July and effective on 16 July, then set 29 February 1948 as the termination date, subject to earlier termination by Congress or the President. 61 Stat. 214; Second Decontrol Act, sections 4 and 9, 61 Stat. 323-324.
• The joint resolution of 30 December 1947 substituted 28 February 1949 for 29 February 1948. Section 3(a), 61 Stat. 946.

This chronology establishes the statutory changes. It does not reconstruct every commodity proclamation, licensing directive or individual licence decision, nor resolve any question about the interval preceding the 1 July 1944 enactment.

Japan and separate legal instruments

The Act forms part of the sequence discussed in United States export controls, asset freeze and de facto oil embargo against Japan (1940-1941). The July 1941 asset freeze was a separate measure. Executive Order 8832 (US, 1941), signed on 26 July, invoked section 5(b) of the Act of 6 October 1917 and amended Executive Order 8389 to add China and Japan. It did not derive its authority from section 6 of the 1940 Act. Executive Order 8832, reproduced in FRUS, document 185.

Contemporaneous records also distinguish licensing from automatic prohibition. Sumner Welles recorded on 30 July that particular cargoes required individual Treasury applications. Dean Acheson's memorandum of 1 August records licences for cargo for the Tatuta Maru, with requested lubricating oil restricted to specified grades. These are bounded examples of administration, not a complete series of petroleum exports. Welles memorandum, document 188; Acheson memorandum, document 191.

Strategic significance and limits

The legal mechanism connected domestic defence requirements to discretionary access to US goods. Its strategic use must be assessed by separating statutory capacity, commodity coverage, licence decisions, physical exports and the recipient's response. The legislation and the examples above do not establish the scale of Japan's resource losses or the relative contribution of economic restrictions to its decision for war. Those causal questions require separate economic and diplomatic evidence.

The 1949 Act was enacted on 26 February and became effective on 28 February 1949. Section 11 preserved outstanding delegations, regulations, orders and licences as if issued under the new Act. Statutory replacement therefore coexisted with administrative continuity. This does not make the expired 1940 authority a present source of powers under the Export Control Reform Act (2018). 1949 Act, sections 3 and 11.

Sources

1. United States Congress, Act of 2 July 1940, chapter 508, section 6, United States Statutes at Large 54 (1940), 714.
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Proclamation 2413, 2 July 1940, United States Statutes at Large 54 (1940), 2712-2714.
3. United States Congress, amendments and extensions: 55 Stat. 206, 56 Stat. 463, 58 Stat. 671, 59 Stat. 270, 60 Stat. 215, 61 Stat. 214, 61 Stat. 321-324, and 61 Stat. 946.
4. United States Department of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Japan, 1931-1941, volume II, documents 135, 185, 188 and 191.
5. United States Congress, Export Control Act of 1949, 26 February 1949, chapter 11, United States Statutes at Large 63 (1949), 7-9.

Historical primary texts checked on 11 November 2026.