Office of the Historian

550.S1 Washington/569

Memorandum of a Conversation Between American and Mexican Representatives
[Washington, May 17, 1933?]

Meeting: At Department of State, 3 p.m., May 17.

Present: The Secretary of State, Senator Pittman, Mr. Tugwell, Mr. Feis, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Alberto Pani, Mexican Minister of Finance, the Mexican Ambassador, Mr. Gomez Morin, Director of the Mexican National Railways and the Bank of Mexico, Mr. Arroyo, Chief of the Tariff Section of the Mexican Ministry of Finance, and Mr. de la Torre, Secretary to Mr. Pani.

Mr. Pani read a statement which was a résumé of the views that had been propounded by Senator Pittman and Mr. Warburg, as he understood them, and stated that he was in entire agreement. Senator Pittman made the remark that the statement was an excellent one and made one or two minor corrections which Mr. Pani agreed to. Mr. Pani then read a statement in regard to Mexico’s views with respect to tariff reciprocity and after a very brief discussion, the American representatives stated that there was as yet no authority given to the Executive by Congress for the negotiations of any sort of reciprocal tariff agreement,45 but that when and if such authority were granted, this Government would be ready to discuss the matter with Mexico. To this Mr. Pani agreed and said that the Mexicans likewise would then be ready to negotiate on the matter.

Mr. Pani then submitted a proposed draft for a joint issuance to the press tomorrow,46 after his farewell audience with the President, [Page 551] setting forth the views of the two Governments with respect to the results of the informal conversations. Senator Pittman suggested some slight changes to which Mr. Pani agreed, and the draft was approved by both the Secretary and Senator Pittman. Mr. Pani was told that it would have to be submitted to the President before it was given out, and that its issuance could be arranged for at the time Mr. Pani made his farewell to the President.

  1. For correspondence concerning reciprocal trade agreement policy, see pp. 921 ff; for bilateral negotiations with individual countries, see vol. ii under Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden, vol. iv under Argentina, and vol. v under Brazil.↩
  2. For text, see Department of State, Press Releases, May 20, 1933, p. 345.↩