617.003/178: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Nicaragua (Lane)
21. Your telegram No. 40, May 19, 5 p.m. You may remind President Sacasa that while it is, of course, for Nicaragua to decide what steps it will take in the matter, the Governments represented at Montevideo, including Nicaragua and the United States, approved the resolution on economic, commercial and tariff policy3 which declares “that the principle of equality of treatment stands and must continue to stand as the basis of all acceptable commercial policy” and which recommends the reduction of trade barriers.
In agreement with this resolution, the trade agreements program of this Government is aimed at the reduction of trade barriers and contemplates [Page 815] equal treatment for all countries. This Government, therefore, will not seek preferential treatment from any government with which it is now negotiating or may negotiate.
This Government considers that general adherence to the above principle is in its own ultimate interest, as well as that of all other nations, and that any action which impairs this principle is to its ultimate disadvantage.
- Resolution V, Economic, Commercial, and Tariff Policy, approved December 16, 1933, Report of the Delegates of the United States of America to the Seventh International Conference of American States, Montevideo, Uruguay, December 3–26, 1933 (Washington, 1934), pp. 196–198.↩