611.1731/176: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Nicaragua (Lane)
Washington, March 6, 1936—3
p.m.
29. Your telegram No. 51, March 5, 4:00 p.m.
- Schedule 1. Progress you report thus far is gratifying. The Department cannot, however, consider seriously the suggestion to have Schedule 1 made up exclusively of bindings save for one minor concession on lard. Our original requests to Nicaragua were more moderate than those we have submitted to any of the other Central American Republics. Furthermore, we cannot lose sight of the fact that Honduras granted—in return for a Schedule 2 which is approximately equivalent to what we are offering Nicaragua, 17 important duty reductions, in addition to 20 bindings. (See Honduran press release for full details.) Moreover, the trade agreement with Guatemala, the conclusion of which is believed to be imminent, includes a Schedule I carrying 15 reductions and 58 bindings. Costa Rica has tentatively agreed to 30 reductions and 7 bindings. Neither Guatemala nor Costa Rica is receiving substantially more on Schedule II than Nicaragua. We cannot afford to jeopardize these negotiations or to arouse Honduran resentment against the agreement just concluded with that country which has an original life of only 1 year. We, therefore, believe the agreement with Nicaragua must contain a reasonable number of the concessions originally requested.
- Schedule II. You may wish to point out in your conversations that
the Nicaraguan products on which we are willing to make commitments
in Schedule II represented 92 percent, 93 percent and 94 percent of
total value of all Nicaraguan exports to the United States in 1932,
1933 and 1934, respectively, and that free entry of all but one item
is being assured. These figures speak for themselves regarding what
we are offering Nicaragua and should carry weight in discussing what
we are asking of Nicaragua.
- Section A. Your telegram No. 51, March 5, 4:00 p.m. Your reference to Nicaragua’s refusal to deduct the present 25 percent French conventional discount from various items now enjoying that discount is not entirely clear. Please follow this point closely and report fully.
- Section B. Your telegram No. 51, March 5, 4:00 p.m. Referring to Department’s instruction No. 407 of February 27, we are compiling full list of concessions of interest to Nicaragua and will cable these [Page 811] to you promptly as well as the Department’s decision concerning the form to be used in communicating them to the Nicaraguan Government. In this connection we presume Legation has full set of texts of all trade agreements concluded to date.
Hull