638.5131/35
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Latin American Affairs (Wilson)
Mr. de la Rue, Financial Adviser to Haiti, telephoned from New York. He said he had just held a conference with the French Ambassador and the French Commercial Attaché regarding the commercial relations between France and Haiti. He found the attitude of the Ambassador most sympathetic. The Ambassador had said that the recent suggestion of the French Chamber of Commerce in Haiti to calculate duties on imports from France on a gold basis had come from the French Commercial Attaché in Habana. The Ambassador felt that this Commercial Attaché had gone too far in the matter.
The Ambassador said that he would send to his Government a memorandum recommending that France should maintain the status quo as regards coffee quotas for Haiti. Also, that France should work out a plan with Haiti which would define articles of specific French origin and of which France furnishes the major part of Haiti’s imports and endeavor to obtain tariff reductions on such articles from Haiti, which Haiti could generalize to other countries under the most-favored-nation clause. Mr. de la Rue said that he thought the French Ambassador was taking a broad gauge and friendly attitude towards the relations between Haiti and France and that his recommendations to the French Government would be extremely helpful from the point of view of Haiti without prejudicing the normal trade interests of the United States in Haiti.