611.5231/803
The Spanish Ambassador (Calderón) to the Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of Your Excellency’s kind note of the 25 instant, in which, in replying to the one addressed to you by my predecessor, Mr. Cárdenas on May 18 last, you are good enough to say that, being aware of the present condition of trade between Spain and the United States, Your Excellency also desires to arrive at a satisfactory adjustment in regard to the complaints which the Government of the Republic may have concerning the treatment now accorded to Spanish merchandise as well as in regard to those of the Government of the United States with respect to certain American products, and that, for the time being, Your [Page 699] Excellency cannot fix a date on which to open discussions with regard to these problems, although you are good enough to express your belief and desire that it will be possible to reach a prompt decision in the matter.
I feel that I must express to Your Excellency the satisfaction of my Government on learning that the Government of the United States agrees with it as to the necessity of taking up as soon as possible the study of the present Hispano–American trade relations, susceptible, as Your Excellency very well says, of a solution satisfactory to both High Parties, which study, at the same time, will tend toward a greater facility for the liquidation of the credits, principally of a commercial character, which are at present creating an extremely difficult situation for official Spanish organizations, a situation which is the natural result of the burdensome deficit in our balance of payment with the United States which in 1932 (the full statistics for 1933 have not yet been published) amounted, for commercial credits alone, to the sum of approximately 109,000,000 pesetas, without counting the very large credits resulting from American capital invested in Spain, an amount which places the United States in the first rank among the countries with regard to which Spain has a commercial deficit, and which represents 46.6% of the total of the unfavorable balance of trade.
The importance for the Government of the Republic of these figures in their repercussion on foreign trade was the reason for the above-mentioned note of my predecessor dated May 18 last, the purpose of which was to bring about as soon as possible the relief of such a situation for Spain. It was written also in the interest of the export trade itself of the United States with my country, and with a view not only to early negotiations, but also, in the meanwhile, to the favorable settlement of the claims that were examined in Washington in March, 1932, by the American and Spanish experts, the majority of which are still pending.
I avail myself [etc.]