611.5231/813
Memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Western European Affairs (Hickerson)
The Spanish Ambassador came in the day before yesterday and handed me the attached note18 regarding the terms of a proposed modus vivendi between the United States and Spain under which trade agreement negotiations might be undertaken. The Ambassador explained that his Government could not acquiesce in our proposal that Spain agree during the course of the negotiations to extend to American products any tariff reductions granted to other foreign products, but that they were prepared unilaterally to give us an undertaking that they would not adopt during the negotiations any quotas which affected especially the United States. I told the Ambassador that I would discuss this matter with Mr. Grady19 and then talk to him further.
This afternoon I asked Señor Calderón to call at the Department and Mr. Grady and I discussed with him the Spanish proposals. We expressed our disappointment that the Spanish Government could not agree to our proposal regarding customs duties during negotiations. We added that we appreciated deeply the fact that Spain was willing unilaterally to agree to impose no quotas on products in which we were especially interested during the negotiations but we pointed out that our proposal respecting quotas had also called for an assurance that the United States would be given its fair share of the quotas already adopted or other quotas which might be adopted even if the quota did not affect us primarily. We pointed out that thus far we have not been informed of our share in any of the quotas which Spain has adopted. The Ambassador said that his information was that we would as a matter of course receive our fair share of these and any other quotas; he added that he believed the quota would [Page 705] be based on imports for the three year period preceding the imposition of the quota. He said, however, that he would have to consult his Government about giving us a definite assurance in this matter. He added that he would do this as soon as possible and let us know. I got the impression from the Ambassador that there would probably be no difficulty on this score from the Spanish Government.
The Ambassador then asked whether there was any truth in the rumors to the effect that all negotiations should be postponed until after the November election. Mr. Grady replied that we were making as rapidly as possible arrangements to proceed with negotiations with several countries immediately and that if the Spanish reply was favorable we would immediately appoint a Special Committee to begin preparations for negotiations with Spain. He added that we have been somewhat criticized by newspapers favoring the trade agreement program for our delay in getting; negotiations under way and stated that he saw no reason to anticipate any delay in our negotiations with Spain provided the Spanish reply is satisfactory.