611.5631/179: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in the Netherlands (Emmet)
12. Department’s 10, March 21, 3 p.m. Instead of issuing a proclamation listing the countries which discriminate against American commerce, it is now proposed, subject to the President’s approval, that he will issue to the Secretary of the Treasury a letter specifying the countries to which the Belgian concessions will be extended. This letter will provide that extension of the concessions will be made in respect of the products of the Netherlands until 6 months after the date of the letter itself. Other countries with which we are negotiating trade agreements will be included in this same group. No mention will be made of the question of particular discrimination by the Netherlands.
Yesterday van Breugel5 and Molekamp discussed this matter with an officer of the Department, who outlined to them the proposed new procedure. They seemed to feel that this new procedure, which does not single out the Netherlands as a discriminating country, would be quite acceptable to the Netherland Government. They went on to point out that our proposal for an immediate exchange of notes seemed clearly to be a thing which should be a part of the more comprehensive trade agreement negotiations, particularly in view of the fact that Netherland tariff duties are quite low and in view of the fact that the Netherland Government would probably reserve the question of quotas for the comprehensive negotiations.
- Baron van Breugel Douglas, Chargé of the Netherland Legation.↩