662.6331/52: Telegram
The Ambassador in Germany (Sackett) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 23—2:15 p.m.]
35. At noon today, I received from the Foreign Office a copy of an agreement which, in the eventual form of a treaty, would create a customs union between Austria and Germany. According to the agreement, the treaty would be effective for at least 3 years. Except for temporary duties upon several classes of goods which would later be lifted, the pact would provide for free trade between the two countries without export or import duties.
The agreement makes provision also for rules pertaining to national monopolies and consumption charges; and for revised cattle quarantine regulations. Each country will maintain its own customs service to supervise imports from other countries. Moreover, there are provisions for the creation of an arbitration board to interpret the treaty and to adjust differences; and for administrative details. Germany and Austria will attempt to harmonize the proposed treaty with commercial pacts existing between themselves and other Governments. The treaty will be in force on a date mutually agreed upon subsequent to signature. If, in the opinion of either party, an “arbitration award” should conflict with its vital national interests, a denunciation becomes effective after 6 months’ notice.
A Foreign Office spokesman told me that by the treaty the independence or sovereignty of either nation remains inviolate; that the provisions relating to one party are the same for the other; and that they are mutually agreed to negotiate similar agreements with other European Governments. Their hope is, he continued, that from the economic point of view, it will facilitate a fulfillment of Briand’s89 [Page 566] plan of a United States of Europe. I was reminded that a treaty had not been concluded but that the two Governments had merely agreed upon the basis for such a negotiation. While I was at the Foreign Office, the Italian, French, and British representatives were handed copies of the agreement. The German authorities appeared confident that the latter document is not in violation of article 88 of the Treaty of St. Germain90 and the Geneva Protocol of October 4, 1922,91 and article 80 of the Treaty of Versailles.92
I inquired whether or not the most-favored-nation clause of our commercial treaty with Germany was affected.93 The reply was that in this case the most-favored-nation clause did not apply. If you desire a copy I can furnish a translation of the agreement at once.
At the Foreign Office it was indicated that the French were unprepared for this announcement. Whether or not it is an infringement of the Geneva Protocol is the topic of debate in France.
- Aristide Briand, French Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩
- Treaties, Conventions, etc., 1910–1923, vol. iii, pp. 3149, 3181.↩
- League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. xii, p. 386.↩
- Treaties, Conventions, etc., 1910–1923, vol. iii, pp. 3329, 3372.↩
- Treaty of December 8, 1923, Foreign Relations, 1923, vol. ii, p. 29.↩