Mr. Wharton to Mr. Phelps.
Washington, June 15, 1891.
Sir: I inclose for your information a copy of a note* sent to the German minister in this city in relation to the inspection recently put in operation by the Secretary of Agriculture, in accordance with the act of Congress of March 3 last, for the inspection of cattle and hogs and their products.
A copy of this law and the regulations under it was sent to you with instruction No. 234, of April 1 last, for submission to the German Government. It is presumed you have already brought this important document to the attention of the minister for foreign affairs, although no acknowledgment from you of its receipt has yet reached the Department.
In a brief interview which the German minister sought with the Secretary of State in New York last month, he gave intimation of the intention of his Government to accept the inspection provided under this act as satisfactory and to revoke the prohibition of American pork in Germany, but he also coupled this intimation with a desire to secure an assurance from the Government of the United States that the President would not exercise his power under section 3 of the tariff act of October 1, 1890, and reimpose duty on German sugars imported into the United States after January 1, 1892; and the minister has repeated this statement verbally and informally to officials of this Department. The President, however, does not at present see how the revocation of the pork prohibition should be made to depend upon his action under section 3 of the tariff act. The German Government has persistently adhered to the position that the origin and maintenance of the pork prohibition was based on the absence of, or imperfect, inspection of American pork, which, it was alleged, exposed German consumers to disease. If that Government recognizes the sufficiency of the present inspection, it hardly seems reasonable to ask that the United States should purchase the revocation of the prohibition by a promised concession of duties on sugar. The President is disposed to treat with the German Government respecting commercial reciprocity, under section 3 above cited, with the greatest spirit of liberality, and the prompt action of that Government regarding the pork inspection will have its due weight in determining the terms of the reciprocity arrangement; but it would hardly comport with the past contention of the German Government to make the revocation of the prohibition dependent upon an act having no relation to it.
The foregoing views are communicated to you for your information and for such use as your judgment may determine in case the subject may arise in your intercourse with the German Government. The Department has sympathized with your expressed desire not to embarrass the pork question by any undue haste or imprudent reference to the powers of retaliation with which Congress has clothed the President; but, in view of the great pains which this Government has taken to conform its inspection of pork to the requirements of the German Government, and of the prolonged exclusion of this important and healthful American product, the President feels that the time is near at hand when the prohibition should be removed.
The Department was advised in December last by Consul-General [Page 512] Edwards of the removal of the prohibition by imperial decree against the pork of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, leaving the United States, so far as known here, the only country shut out from the German market; and the continuance of the prohibition after due notice of the inspection now established would seem to be such an unfriendly discrimination against the United States that this Government is unwilling to believe it can be contemplated by the imperial authorities.
Your attention is directed to the statement made in the inclosed note to the German minister that pork inspected under the existing regulations will be ready for exportation by September 1, and it is regarded as a reasonable expectation that by that date the German markets will be open to that American product.
I am, etc.,
Acting Secretary.
- For this inclosure see note to German minister of June 15.↩