611.5131/1292a: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Straus)
446. For your information, and such comment as you may wish to offer, the French Trade Agreement counterproposals presented October 1826 are substantially the same as those transmitted in July27 and indicated in your despatch no. 2052 of July 26, 1935.
With respect both to safeguards in the general provisions and removal of discrimination in quota and tariff rate positions, the concessions offered us are considered wholly insufficient. We have been requested to present our minimum demands and at the same time to grant further tariff concessions on items of major importance to France. Accordingly we handed to Garreau-Dombasle on October 28 a revised list26 of requests with respect to French treatment of items of major importance to us and with respect to minimum safeguards in the general provisions.
We have made clear why we are forced to consider the French proposals of October 18 inadequate to justify our seeking to add further difficult concessions for the products of principal interest to France. Such concessions must necessarily be contingent upon substantial acceptance by the French Government of our proposals of October 28.
In our desire to secure an agreement which would take account of the parliamentary difficulties of the French Government, we are prepared to recede from our established policy of securing definite consolidation of minimum tariff rates and other charges on importation in respect of scheduled concessions to us, while consenting to the consolidation of scheduled concessions by us. We are prepared to modify the usual exchange and currency guarantees. Our revised proposals provide, in case of increases in the French tariff on scheduled items, for 30 days advance notice and consultation as to compensatory modification of the terms of the Agreement, and in the event no agreement is reached, for automatic expiration 30 days after the effective date of such tariff change. A similar provision is proposed [Page 234] with respect to the annual quota quantities specified, in case of changes in them after the first year.
Such automatic cancellation is intended to discourage the unfavorable unilateral revision of concessions granted to us when the pending study of French tariff reorganization is put into effect. It is to be feared that any further relaxation of our established policy of safeguarding concessions would seriously endanger negotiations with other countries and the general benefits of the trade agreements program.
The following lists classify as Group A those items of major importance and as Group B items of considerable importance. While no individual item is held to be indispensable, substantial acquiescence in our proposals of October 28 is essential.
- 1:
- To be removed from list of exceptions to minimum tariff:
- Group A—Preserved Fish, Others; Rice, Whole, etc. and Rough; Borate of Soda; Chromates and Bichromates of Potassium and of Soda.
- Group B—Carbons for arc lights, etc.; Pumps.
- 2:
- Minimum duties to be reduced:
- Group A—Grapefruit; Dried Prunes; Preserved Fruit in Syrup; Preserved Asparagus; Automobile Chassis.
- Group B—American Dried Raisins of Smyrna and Corinth type to be dutiable at rate applied to Smyrna and Corinth raisins; Preserved Pineapple without sugar; Spark Plugs and Plug Insulators.
- 3:
- Quota Treatment:
- Group A—Frozen Salmon; Preserved Fish, Other, except Salmon; Apples and Pears; Common Woods; Nitrate of Soda; Radio Tubes; Silk Stockings; Patent Leather; Radios; Electric Domestic Refrigerators; Typewriters; Refrigerating Apparatus; Passenger Automobiles.
- Group B—Preserved Crustaceans; Rolled Oats; Insulating Board; Automatic and non-automatic Electric Control Apparatus; Twist Drills, etc.; Circular Saws, etc.; Rubber Manufactures, others.
- 4:
- French quota proposals indicated as acceptable:
Carborundum; Natural Abrasives on Paper; Varnishes and Assimilated Paints, Others; Artificial Teeth; Hides Curried, etc., Goat, Kid, Sheep and Lamb; Agricultural Machinery; Pneumatic Tools; Aluminum Manufactures, Others; Direct Reading Apparatus for Measuring Pressures, etc.