Treaty Series No. 672
The Brazilian Ambassador (Alencar) to the Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary of State: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency’s note of today’s date, communicating to me your understanding of the views developed by the conversations which have recently taken place between the Governments of Brazil and the United States at Rio de Janeiro and Washington with reference to the treatment which shall be accorded by each country to the commerce of the other.
I am happy to be able to confirm to you, under instructions from my Government, your Excellency’s understanding of the said views as set forth in the following terms:
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 Brazil into the United States and of the United States into Brazil, 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 Brazil and the United States 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 Brazil or the United States 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 the United States and Brazil, respectively, on their importation into the other country.
[Page 463]It is the purpose of Brazil and the United States 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 Brazil and the United States to impose, on such terms as they may see fit, prohibitions or restrictions of a sanitary character designed to protect human, animal or plant life, or regulations for the enforcement of police or revenue laws.
I avail myself [etc.]