611.5831/227
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The Minister of Sweden2 called and expressed disappointment over the slowness at which trade agreement negotiations were going along between his Government and mine. I explained to him that naturally a program of broad commercial policy, such as this Government was prosecuting, could only move slowly, on account of the tremendous lobby and other opposition to any sane, practical trade development; that if and as other countries joined in the movement, we could proceed all the more rapidly with our negotiations; that it was really better for a partial agreement containing the favored-nation doctrine to be entered into promptly, with the idea that it would be possible to supplement it six to twelve months later, than to delay negotiations considerably by preparing a comprehensive agreement at one time. I said this to encourage the Minister not to seek too many concessions at this stage.
- W. Boström.↩