611.6331/120
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Western European Affairs (Moffat)
Mr. Sayre41 received Mr. von Boehler, Chairman of the Austrian Trade Delegation, and two of his colleagues this afternoon; Mr. Gardner Richardson, of the Department of Commerce, and Mr. Pierrepont Moffat, of the State Department were also present.
Mr. von Boehler told Mr. Sayre that the Chamber of Commerce in Vienna had prepared a careful study of the items of the American tariff which it desired to see lowered and for which it was prepared to make concessions. On second examination, it was found that this memorandum was now somewhat out of date and the Commission was accordingly prepared to revise it, put it in English, and submit it not as a basis of negotiations but as a précis of the situation as seen from the Austrian side.
Mr. Sayre explained that he would be delighted to look over the memorandum42 but that the United States was not in a position to enter into any form of tariff negotiations with the Austrian Government at present. In the first place, we did not have the requisite legislative authority; in the second place, we were engaged on certain preliminary trade discussions with countries whose exports to the United States were non-competitive and which presumably could absorb some of the American agricultural surplus; in the third place, our experience had shown that negotiations were much more time-consuming than we had anticipated and that our personnel to make the requisite studies was limited.
Mr. Sayre made it very clear that we were not now in a position to start any form of treaty negotiations with Austria, nor would he commit himself as to when we might be able to begin, either as to date or as to the order in which we would start negotiating with foreign countries. Mr. von Boehler hoped that before he sailed back we might have some more definite news for him but Mr. Sayre was noncommittal.