Office of the Historian

611.5331/134: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Minister in Portugal (Caldwell)

Washington, March 22, 1935—5 p.m.

1. An officer of the Department yesterday discussed with the Portuguese Minister the possibilities of an exchange of notes with the Portuguese Government providing for most-favored-nation treatment in respect of shipping. It was pointed out to the Minister that the Tariff Act of 19342 provided that concessions made to one country as a result of trade agreements would be generalized to all countries except that the President could suspend generalization to those countries which practice discrimination against American commerce; that about April 1 the President would proclaim the Belgian trade agreement;3 that by reason of Portuguese discriminations against American shipping, Portugal would be named in the proclamation unless the shipping discrimination could be corrected before that time; that generalization would be made to Portugal pending the life of the existing modus vivendi;4 that, unless the shipping discrimination is corrected, on the date of the President’s proclamation notice would be given to Portugal denouncing the existing modus vivendi, the effective date of denunciation to be about 3 months later; that unless this shipping discrimination could be corrected benefits arising from all other agreements, such as for instance the Spanish agreement now under negotiation,5 would also be refused to Portugal; that we hoped it would be possible to exchange notes correcting the discrimination or at least that the Portuguese Government would, prior to the proclamation proclaiming the Belgian agreement, agree in principle to such an exchange.

Hull
  1. Trade Agreements Act, approved June 12, 1934, 48 Stat. 943.↩
  2. See pp. 102 ff. For text of the Reciprocal Trade Agreement between the United States and the Belgo-Luxemburg Economic Union, signed February 27, 1935, see Department of State Executive Agreement Series No. 75, or 49 Stat. 3680.↩
  3. Commercial arrangement effected by exchange of notes, June 28, 1910, Foreign Relations, 1910, pp. 828 ff.↩
  4. See pp. 687 ff.↩