611.5231/1021: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Spain (Bowers)
54. Your despatch No. 857, August 19, 1935.16 You are requested to take up again with the appropriate authorities at your earliest opportunity the question of exchange insurance, urging strongly that same treatment be accorded to imports from the United States as to imports from other countries.
The assumption by the Foreign Exchange Control Board in the case of payments for imports from Holland, Switzerland, France and Great Britain of the risk of losses on exchange, while importers of goods from the United States continue to be required to deposit from 5 to 10% of the amount of their payments to insure against the possibility [Page 719] of such losses is on the face of it a discrimination against American trade. When, however, in an interview with the Commercial Attaché, the principal official of the Exchange Control Board states that the four countries mentioned were selected because they have unfavorable balances of trade with Spain, it becomes more than ever clear that the so-called “experimental” exchange insurance policy of the Board is deliberately intended to discourage imports from the United States. Such action on the part of the Board is particularly unfortunate at a time when this Government is endeavoring to negotiate a trade agreement with Spain which will open up American markets to many important Spanish products since it must necessarily bring into question the desirability of entering into an agreement with a country which seems disposed to place obstacles in the way of our trade rather than to remove them. In this connection, I should like to point out (with reference to the Department’s telegram No. 51, August 8, 6 p.m., and the Embassy’s telegram No. 55 of August 17, 1 p.m.) that the Spanish Government has made no reply to date to the American offers and requests submitted to the Spanish Ambassador on August 7th.
- Not printed.↩