611.1731/20a
The Secretary of State to President Coolidge
Dear Mr. President: At the present time the Government of Nicaragua, under a treaty with France, accords to certain specified French products a reduction in import duties amounting to twenty-five per centum of the regularly imposed duties. This reduction is not extended to similar goods from the United States and would appear, consequently, to constitute a discrimination within the meaning of Section 317 of the Tariff Act of 1922, which authorizes the President, under specified conditions, to levy additional duties upon products imported into the United States from countries which discriminate against American commerce in favor of the commerce of any other country.
It appears preferable for the United States, rather than to consider the imposition of additional import duties on merchandise from Nicaragua, to negotiate an arrangement with a view to eliminating the discriminations by mutual consent. Arrangements of this sort providing for unconditional most-favored-nation treatment, a policy which was approved by President Harding in a letter which he addressed [Page 513] to me under date of February 27, 1923,21 were effected by exchanges of notes with Brazil, on October 18, 1923,22 and, similarly, with Czechoslovakia on October 29, 1923.23 Accordingly, with a view to avoiding the continuance of the existing discriminations against American commerce on the part of Nicaragua, it is proposed to enter into an arrangement with that Government, in the form of an exchange of notes, by which Nicaragua and the United States would respectively undertake not to discriminate against the goods of the other country. Such an arrangement, while removing the discrimination against American products, would not involve the United States in an obligation to do anything that would not be done as a matter of course under existing legislation, once the discrimination against American goods is removed. The proposed arrangement would be terminable in case either party should find itself in a position where, because of change in legislation, it could not continue to be bound by its commitments.
I have ascertained that the Nicaraguan Government is disposed to enter into an arrangement of this character, but before proposing to that Government the text of notes to be exchanged I desire to learn whether this course of action meets with your approval.
Faithfully yours,
- Not printed.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1923, vol. i, p. 461.↩
- Ibid., p. 873.↩