611.5131/1076: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France ( Straus )
159. Your 368, April 27, 2 p.m. Public notice of intention to negotiate a trade agreement with France will be issued tomorrow [Page 220] afternoon.12 June 24 will be fixed as the date for the public hearings before the Committee for Reciprocity Information.
Under present instructions from the President to the Secretary of the Treasury, France is to enjoy the benefits of the Belgian trade agreement so long as the present directions from the President are not modified. New instructions will now be issued to the Secretary of the Treasury, placing France in the same category with certain other countries with which we are negotiating trade agreements, and the benefits of the Belgian and other agreements will be extended to France for a period of 6 months as from April 1. We of course hope that a satisfactory agreement will have been reached before the expiration of that period.
- See Department of State, Press Releases, May 4, 1935, p. 301.↩