611.60d31/133a

The Acting Secretary of State to President Roosevelt

My Dear Mr. President: The negotiations for a trade agreement with Finland have practically been completed and a very satisfactory agreement is in sight.

Finland is willing to grant an attractive list of concessions for the benefit of our trade including tariff reductions on a number of agricultural products. Tariff concessions are offered on lard, fresh apples, grapefruit, raisins, prunes, dried fruits, and canned fruits and vegetables, which should result in substantial increase in our exports of these products to Finland. I am enclosing a statement8 listing the concessions offered on the above mentioned products.

The tariff concessions proposed to be granted to Finland include, in addition to the concessions on granite, cheese, sulphate wrapping paper [Page 75] and cream separators which were approved by you last August, three additional concessions for which your approval is now requested, namely:

(1)
A reduction in duty on cream separators valued at more than $50 and not more than $100 each (you have already approved the binding on the free list of cream separators valued at not more than $50 each).
(2)
A tariff reduction on birch plywood.
(3)
A tariff reduction on spools for thread.

I attach a table9 containing the essential data regarding these proposed additional concessions. These are very minor items. The ratio of imports to domestic production is minute and imports of none of these three items exceeded $2000 in 1934. Although there may be some criticism by the independent spool producers of the proposed concession on spools and from the Northwest with reference to the concession on birch plywood, the Trade Agreements Committee is informed that the birch plywood concession will not in any way adversely affect the domestic producers and that the spool concession will have little effect.

In view of the excellent concessions on our agricultural products which we will obtain by the proposed trade agreement, I am convinced that it would be desirable to proceed now to the conclusion of the trade agreement on the terms arrived at, and therefore solicit your approval of these three minor additional concessions.10

Faithfully yours,

William Phillips
  1. Not attached to file copy.
  2. Not printed.
  3. No reply from the President has been found in the Department’s files, but as these concessions were made in the agreement, presumably that approval was given.