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.