Mr. Leishman to Mr.
Hay.
United
States Legation,
Berne,
Switzerland, February 16,
1899.
No. 131.]
Sir: Referring to your dispatch No. 138, of
December 29, 1898, not having received any reply to my note of January
11 addressed to the President of the Swiss Confederation, copy of which
was inclosed to you in my dispatch No. 124, of January 14, 1899, I again
addressed a
[Page 751]
note to the
President, under date of February 14, 1899, calling attention to this
fact and requesting a prompt decision, in response to which I am just in
receipt of a note from the Swiss federal council containing a counter
proposition and proposed projet of convention, copies of which are
herewith transmitted, together with translation, which I hasten to
forward by first mail, with the hope that it may reach you in tune to
enable you to submit the matter during the present session of the
Senate, in the event of the proposed changes in projet of convention
meeting with your approval; and as the note of the Swiss federal council
is self-explanatory it is hardly necessary for me to add any comments,
and can only regret that the delay in receiving a reply, which,
considering the importance of the matter, has not been unreasonable,
leaves so little time for consideration ere the closing of the present
session of the Senate.
Regretting my inability to more clearly carry out your wishes, I have,
etc.,
[Inclosure No. 1]
Mr. Leishman to
Mr. Muller.
United States Legation,
Berne, Switzerland, February 14, 1899.
Sir: I respectfully beg leave to call your
excellency’s attention to my note of January 11, inclosing a copy of
a proposed projet of convention, and owing to the urgency and
importance of the matter venture to hope that your excellency will
kindly furnish me with your reply, so as to enable me to forward
same to the honorable Secretary of State by the end of the present
week, as otherwise, in the event of favorable action on the part of
your excellency’s Government, the papers could not reach Washington
in time to enable the Department of State to submit the proposed
convention to the Senate for ratification during the present
session, which expires on March 4 next; and as the next regular
session does not take place until December, failure to secure the
necessary legislation would leave my Government in an embarrassing
position, for reasons already explained.
With the hope that I may be favored with a prompt and favorable
reply, and begging your excellency, etc.,
[Inclosure No.
2.—Translation.]
Mr. Muller to
Mr. Leishman.
Berne, February 14,
1899.
Sir: We had the honor to receive your
excellency’s note of January 11 last, by which you have made known
to us the projet of a supplementary convention destined to modify
the application of Articles VIII, IX, X and XII, of the treaty of
establishment and commerce concluded on November 25, 1850, between
Switzerland and the United States of America.
The essential point of this convention would have the object of
limiting the application of the treatment of the most favored nation
to those articles only for which one or other of the contracting
parties has accorded to another nation, of its own free will and
without any compensation, reductions on the import duties, while all
other articles for which the reduction of the duties has only been
admitted in return for compensation should be excluded from the
treatment of favor. We beg in the first place, to observe that the
projet, compared with other treaties concluded by the United States,
appears to contain a deficiency, inconsequence of which Switzerland
could not claim the advantages of treatment accorded to third
parties even if she offered equivalent compensations.
The Government of the United States will recognize that by this fact
alone Switzerland would find herself in a position of inferiority
toward other nations.
[Page 752]
Further, and leaving on one side what we believe to be an involuntary
omission, the proposed addition to the treaty of 1850 would make
Switzerland lose the only advantage that the articles in question
offered from a practical point of view. In fact, as the United
States have not, to our knowledge, till now accorded concessions
without compensations to any country, and as the tariff bill of the
24th of July, 1897, only takes account of concession in exchange for
compensations, the clause of the treatment of most favored nation,
so interpreted, would become a dead letter for Switzerland.
Under these conditions we regret not to be able to discover of what
advantage it would be to our country to give its assent to the
projet of a supplementary convention as proposed by the Government
of the United States, and to the conclusion of which it subordinates
the abandonment of its intention to denounce the treaty of 1850.
Being, however, animated by a desire to prove our good will to your
Government, and to smooth away the difficulties raised by the clause
of the most favored nation, we believe it to be possible to attain
this end by the conclusion of a customs convention, relating to
which projet we still expect the communication of the demands to be
formulated by the United States in reply to those that we have had
the honor to make known to your excellency in our note of the 11th
of October last. If it should be possible to arrive by such an act
at an understanding as to the duties to be imposed on our principal
articles of export to the United States we should be disposed to
consent at the same time to restrict to these articles the treatment
of the most favored nation established by the treaty of 1850, and to
forfeit our claim to this treatment for any other articles.
We annex, by way of explanation, the projet of a convention conceived
according to this idea.
The Government of the United States will recognize that a solution of
this nature would do away with the difficulties created by the
afore-mentioned treaty.
In fact it would restore to the union a complete liberty of action
with respect to almost all the points of its customs tariff of these
we should keep only the advantages of the gratuitous concessions,
which advantages are also reserved to the other States that have
concluded treaties with the United States.
The unlimited right of the most-favored nation would only be
maintained in favor of a very small number of articles of
predominating interest to Switzerland, including concessions in
return for compensations.
But while, at the same time fixing on a mutual understanding the
duties to be imposed on these articles and on those of interest to
the United States, the drawback that other countries could pretend
to the same treatment with respect to said articles without
fulfilling analogous conditions would be avoided; that is to say,
that these States would be obliged as we are to come to an
understanding with the United States and to offer them
compensations. This, if we have rightly understood, is the end
pursued by your Government in its projet of convention, which
projet, therefore, is in its consequences identical with ours, with
the difference that this last would at the same time permit both
parties to guarantee their principal products against the
eventuality of a system of favor exclusively of profit to other
countries. On the other hand, the projet of the Government of the
United States would purely and simply annul the advantages of the
clauses of the treaty of 1850, and far from this offering a more
considerable profit to your nation, it would cause it to lose even
that which it actually derives from the said clauses, especially
with regard to preserved meats and other products, as we have had
the honor to show more clearly in our note of the 1st of September
last. We do not mention the advantages which might follow upon the
conclusion of the proposed convention.
With the hope that your Government will kindly examine our objections
and our proposals with the attention that they merit, we avail
ourselves of this opportunity to renew, etc.
In the name of the Swiss Federal Council.
The president of the Confederation:
Muller,
The Chancellor of the Confederation.
[Inclosure No. 3.]
projet of a convention.
The Federal Council of the Swiss Confederation and the President of
the United States of America, animated by the desire to maintain the
amicable relations,
[Page 753]
happily existing between the two countries, as also to develop the
commercial relations and to prevent any difficulties between them,
notably to obviate, by an additional convention, the embarrassments
and difficulties which may result from the interpretation given to
articles VIII, IX, X, and XII of the treaty concluded between the
two Governments on November 25, 1850, have for this end appointed as
their plenipotentiaries:
- The Federal Council of the Swiss Confederates,
- The President of the United States of America,
Who, after having exchanged their credentials, found
to be correct and in due form, have agreed to the following
stipulations:
Art. I.
For the products of Swiss origin, hereafter named, the import duties
into the United States of America are fixed as follows:
Art. II.
The products of the United States of America, hereafter designated,
shall pay the following duties upon entering Switzerland:
Art. III.
The contracting parties, thus specially and mutually favoring their
commercial relations, agree not to accord any favor to another
country for the products above mentioned in Articles I and II unless
it be also immediately and without compensation extended to similar
products of the other party, even if the said favor be accorded in
return for compensation.
Art. IV.
As to the products not enumerated in Articles I and II, the
contracting parties will reciprocally treat each other on the
footing of the most-favored nation, applying to each other the
advantages accorded or that may be accorded the third parties;
gratuitously, if these advantages have been granted gratuitously, or
in exchange for equivalent compensations if they are based on
compensations.
Art. V.
The Articles VIII, IX, X, and XII of the treaty of establishment and
commerce, concluded between the two contracting parties on November
25, 1850, will, as soon as the present convention enters into force,
be interpreted conformably with Articles III and IV above
stipulated.
Art. VI.
The present convention shall be ratified; it will enter into force
immediately after the exchange of the instruments of ratification,
which must take place as early as possible after the ratification by
the Governments of the two countries.
It will be in force for four years. In the event of neither of the
contracting parties having notified the other twelve months before
the end of this period of its intention to put an end to the effects
of the convention, it will remain obligatory until after the
expiration of one year dating from the day when one or the other of
the contracting parties shall have denounced it.
In testimony whereof the plenipotentiaries have signed the present
convention in the English and French languages and have affixed
their seals.
Also done in quadruplicata at Washington, to the —— of ——, 1899.
