711.415 Traders/40
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador ( Lindsay )
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of October 4, 1933, enclosing a counter-draft of the Australian Government to the proposals made by this Government with reference to the negotiation of a convention to facilitate the reciprocal entry and residence of persons engaged in trade between the United States of America and the Commonwealth of Australia and to provide for the basis of the calculation of the dutiable value of imported goods.
It appears from this counter-draft and your transmitting note that the Government of Australia is quite willing to enter into an arrangement by which the entry and residence of persons engaged in trade between the two countries might be facilitated, but that it is averse to including in the same arrangement the provisions proposed in Article III of the United States draft, it seeming to it that the points covered by that Article would more properly form a subject for separate negotiation.
[Page 835]The Government of the United States is glad to accede to the suggestion that the two questions referred to above be made the subject of separate negotiations and is accordingly prepared to proceed to the conclusion of the proposed treaty regarding the entry and residence of business aliens. At the same time I desire to call your attention again to the fact that the diversion of American commerce to Canadian carriers and ports is likewise a question of long standing and has operated to the serious disadvantage of American carriers and ports. With this point in mind, the Government of the United States has instructed the American Consul General at Sydney, Australia, to propose an exchange of notes relating to the determination of the dutiable value of goods of American origin imported into Australia.
There is herewith enclosed a revised draft of a convention5 to facilitate the reciprocal entry and residence of persons engaged in trade between the United States of America and the Commonwealth of Australia.
You will observe that in Article I, the classification of persons entitled to the preference of the treaty is limited to persons of Australian birth or parentage. This Government prefers to include in the category of persons covered by this article, only those who are Australian citizens, leaving for future negotiations with other members of the British Commonwealth of Nations, the question of the rights of entry and residence of their citizens in the United States.
In view of the change made in the wording of Article I, this Government is prepared to accept the wording of Article II as contained in the proposal submitted with your note of October 4 last.
This Government accepts the counter-proposals made in new Article III relating to the territories to which the present convention shall be applicable.
In line with the present policy of this government of signing short term commercial treaties, it is proposed in the enclosed draft that the initial term of the treaty be two years instead of ten years as in the earlier draft.
Accept [etc.]
- Not printed.↩