611.5231/1012a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Spain (Bowers)
51. We informed Spanish Ambassador yesterday that in addition to the many concessions already offered we were now willing to reduce the duty on onions from 2½ cents per pound to 1½ cents per pound, on natural cork stoppers over ¾ inch from 25 cents per pound to 18 cents per pound, on natural cork stoppers ¾ inch or less in diameter from 31 cents per pound to 22 cents per pound, on packaged olive oil from 8 cents per pound to 7 cents per pound, on garlic from 31 cents per pound to 1¼ cents per pound, on fluorspar containing not more than 97 per cent of calcium fluoride from $8.40 per ton to $7.00 per ton, on canned pimientos from 6 cents per pound to 4 cents per pound, on capers from 20 per cent to 15 per cent, and on oils of pennyroyal, cade and rue from 25 per cent to 20 per cent, to bind the present very low duty on carbonated cider and to bind saffron and pyrites on the free list. We have thus offered substantial reductions on all important Spanish exports to the United States. A complete list of our proposed concessions is being sent to you by mail.
[Page 717]We are asking in return that the Spanish Government allot to the United States 4,717,661 kilograms (or 32.8 per cent) of the automobile quota, reconsider its earlier denial of our request for the binding of the excise tax on cotton and reductions in the duties on carbon black, radio tubes, cornstarch and hog products, and give us assurances that if American cotton, wheat and tobacco are competitive as regards price, quality, marketability and terms of sale with foreign products, Spain will continue to purchase in the United States as in the past 72 per cent of its raw cotton imports, 14 per cent of its wheat imports (in those years in which wheat imports are permitted) and will buy during the three-year period of the agreement 45,000,000 pounds of American tobacco, which is the average of its tobacco imports from the United States in recent years.
It is hoped that you will find an opportunity to point out in appropriate quarters the very considerable benefit which should accrue to Spain from these reductions, especially to producers of wines, olives, olive oil, almonds, cork, apricots, garlic, and pimientos. You should emphasize that we have gone to the utmost limit in an endeavor to meet the demands of Spain.