Treaty Series No. 672
The Secretary of State to the Brazilian Ambassador ( Alencar )
Excellency: I have the honor to communicate to Your Excellency my understanding of the views developed by the conversations which have recently taken place between the Governments of the United States and Brazil at Washington and Rio de Janeiro with reference to the treatment which shall be accorded by each country to the commerce of the other.
The conversations between the two Governments have disclosed a mutual understanding which is that in respect to customs and other duties and charges affecting importations of the products and manufactures of the United States into Brazil and of Brazil into the United States, each country will accord to the other unconditional most-favored-nation treatment, with the exception, however, of the special treatment which the United States accords or hereafter may accord to Cuba, and of the commerce between the United States and its dependencies and the Panama Canal Zone.
The true meaning and effect of this engagement is that, excepting only the special arrangements mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the natural, agricultural and manufactured products of the United States and Brazil will pay on their importation into the other country the lowest rates of duty collectible at the time of such importation on articles of the same kind when imported from any other country, and it is understood that, with the above mentioned exceptions, every decrease of duty now accorded or which hereafter may be accorded by the United States or Brazil by law, proclamation, decree, or commercial treaty or agreement to the products of any third power will become immediately applicable without request and without compensation to the products of Brazil and the United States, respectively, on their importation into the other country.
It is the purpose of the United States and Brazil and it is herein expressly declared that the provisions of this arrangement shall relate only to duties and charges affecting importations of merchandise and that nothing contained herein shall be construed to restrict the right of the United States and Brazil to impose, on such terms as they may see fit, prohibitions or restrictions of a sanitary character [Page 462] designed to protect human, animal, or plant life, or regulations for the enforcement of police or revenue laws.
I shall be glad to have your confirmation of the accord thus reached.
Accept [etc.]