611.3831/68

The Haitian Legation to the Department of State

[Translation]

Memorandum

Referring to the memorandum of the 15th of August, current, by which the Department of State was good enough to inform the Minister of Haiti that an inter-Departmental Committee, composed of officers of the various interested Departments, has been charged to study the possibility of concluding, between the United States and Haiti, a commercial Agreement which would be mutually advantageous and that this Committee is ready to receive the proposals of the Haitian Government, the Minister of Haiti has the honor to make known to the United States the views of his own Government, as follows:

In the first place, it gives great satisfaction to the Haitian Government to render homage to the alert and decisive spirit of the United States Government which, in the persistent crisis in world commerce—a commerce the contraction of which has already caused so serious a prejudice to all—has resolutely undertaken to reestablish the currents of interchange which have been broken by irritated nationalisms or to strengthen the currents weakened by too long a stagnation, or to excite new currents by bilateral arrangements, based on equity, good sense, and reciprocity of advantage.

It also gives great satisfaction to the Haitian Republic to contemplate on this solid basis a useful commercial treaty with the United States according to the promise of His Excellency President Roosevelt, the realization of which promise will mark the new era which is beginning in the relations of the two countries.

Furthermore, the Haitian Republic has always been one of the most faithful customers of the United States. She is a faithful customer today as yesterday. And there was a time when the United States appeared among the best customers of Haiti.

A hundred years ago the excellent coffee of Haiti was consumed in the United States almost to the exclusion of any other coffee. At that far-off period the United States consumed twenty-seven million pounds of coffee, of which some twenty-five to twenty-six millions of [Page 318] pounds came from the Haitian Republic. Haitian coffee is no longer consumed here, except by a very few persons who prefer it; unfortunately, this has been the case for a long time past.

On the other hand, Haitian coffee is much sought after in Europe. It is in constant demand, particularly in France, in Italy, and in the Scandinavian countries which absorb, every year, all of the insufficient crop of Haiti.

Today—and for a long time past—the United States furnishes the Haitian Republic with the greater part of her imports, while taking only an insignificant portion of her exports.

Official statistics show that for the years 1929–1934 Haiti has bought from the United States twelve times more than the United States has bought in Haiti: while seventy-two percent of Haitian imports come from the United States, only six percent of Haitian exports go to the United States. Such a situation is tolerable in normal times. Haitian sales, principally in Europe, cover Haitian purchases from the United States, although the commercial balance between Haiti and the United States is favorable to the United States in the proportion of sixty-six percent.

But in abnormal times, in the crisis which still rages and which has caused almost all the national economies to withdraw into themselves under the protection of forced quotas, this situation imperils Haitian economy which rests precariously on the sale of its principal exportable produce and a purely fiscal customs regime.

The only theoretical means of reducing, for the Haitian Republic, the risks inherent in this situation, is to seek to establish a certain equilibrium in foreign purchases and sales by the application of the “give and take” which others do not hesitate to apply against Haiti.

It is neither the intention nor the desire of the Haitian Government to apply, in the commercial relations between Haiti and the United States, this rule which France and Italy, finding themselves, with respect to Haiti, in a position similar to that of Haiti with respect to the United States, have applied against Haiti for the legitimate defense of their respective economies.

Haiti would not think of having recourse to it except at the last extremity, that is to say, if she should be in the position of being forced to do so in order to subsist. But she well realizes that other things being equal, and even when conditions are more or less slightly different, the United States market, because of its nearness and its enormous productive capacity, is for her a natural market of supply, quite as it ought to be or to become for Haiti an enormous natural outlet for the sale of her own products.

In order to allow the Haitian Republic in her present situation—which is so manifestly disadvantageous with respect to the United [Page 319] States—to maintain her purchases here at their present level and to increase the volume, as it is desirable to do, it seems to be extremely necessary that the United States Government, acting with perfect awareness of the situation, should aid her to increase her power to purchase from the United States by according to her a treatment facilitating the entry into the United States market and the sale therein of the products of her soil and her industry.

It is for this reason, which is at the same time so simple and so reasonable, that the Haitian Government proposes, with all confidence, that the United States Government should consent to the broadest possible special treatment in favor of the following Haitian products:

Rum made from pure sugar-cane juice, sugar, coffee, cacao, long-staple cotton, pita, logwood, cachou nuts, goat skins, fig bananas, and other fresh and preserved fruits, Haitian pulse, as well as embroidery work and hand-made lingerie, etc., etc.

Some of the articles mentioned above are already carried on the free list of the United States tariff. The Haitian Government thinks that, in the interest of the economic development of the country, it would be well to assure the maintenance of such exemptions.