612.119/2862
The Secretary of State to the J. A. Medina Company
Gentlemen: I am in receipt of your letter of May 12, 1920, requesting to be furnished with certain information regarding the payment of invoice fees on shipments of merchandise destined to Mexican east coast ports.
In reply I beg to say that, according to the Department’s information, American exporters at Laredo, Eagle Pass, El Paso, and Nogales are paying consular and other fees to commercial agents of the de facto authority now actually functioning in Mexico. The Department’s information also indicates that exports are moving freely through the ports above mentioned.
However, this Government has not recognized the de facto authority mentioned or its so-called commercial agents now stationed at various places in the United States, and for that reason, it is felt that the matter of clearing vessels destined to Mexican ports with or without consular service, as well as the question of payment of consular fees to such commercial agents, must be left to the judgment of individual exporters or to the owners of vessels, as the case may be.
I am [etc.]
Under Secretary