611.5131/1062a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France ( Straus )
120. Department’s 113, March 30, 6 p.m. Informal discussions have been going on the last few days between the French Commercial Attaché7 and officers in the Department. They have been giving consideration to the French proposals for a trade agreement. While no decision has been reached with regard to the acceptability of the French proposals we have informed Garreau-Dombasle that we are prepared to go forward with trade agreement negotiations on a broad scale; that we would prefer not to undertake an agreement as limited as that suggested in the French proposal; that there are numerous items of interest to France on which duty reductions seem possible; that we would wish to enter upon the negotiations in the greatest spirit of liberality, and that we would expect the French Government to enter into the negotiations on the same basis, and that duty reductions, quotas and all other items would be subject to negotiation. It was proposed that if agreeable to the French Government, public announcement of intention to negotiate would be made in the near future, and negotiations would be treated in the same manner as we have treated negotiations with other countries, namely, to give public notice and announce a date for public hearings and for the presentation of briefs. This would involve approximately 7 to 8 weeks, after which time we could perhaps exchange desiderata with France. We would then be prepared to negotiate and it would be hoped that a satisfactory basis existed upon which to rest a trade agreement between the two governments. Garreau-Dombasle seemed to understand the proposal and said that he would wire his Government immediately and would hope to have a reply by Monday morning.
- Maurice Garreau-Dombasle.↩