611.623/224
The Secretary of State to the German Ambassador (Luther)
Excellency: I have the honor to refer to Your Excellency’s note dated July 25, 1936, concerning the exportation from Germany to the United States of photographic apparatus, calf and goat leather, and surgical instruments.
I have now received from the Acting Secretary of the Treasury a letter referring to this communication and stating that in view of the mandatory character of the countervailing duty law, as interpreted in controlling court decisions, it will not be possible to exempt from the application of Treasury Decision 48360 importations of such articles arriving on or after July 12, 1936, when shipped in fulfillment of contracts entered into prior to July 25, 1936, if their exportation from Germany was aided by any of the practices which led to the promulgation of said decision, but in view of the assurances given by the German Government, Treasury Decision 48360 has been amended by a Treasury decision dated August 4, a copy of which is enclosed.48
Under this Treasury decision the provisions of the countervailing duty order shall not apply to direct or indirect imports from Germany of cameras, calf and kid leather, and surgical instruments if the collector of customs concerned shall be satisfied by documentary evidence that the contract of purchase or other agreement pursuant to which they were exported from Germany was entered into after July 25, 1936.
Accept [etc.]
- Not printed.↩