611.2231/106a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Ecuador (Sparks)
5. Referring to the Department’s telegrams Nos. 44, December 24, 3 p.m.,23 and 1, January 6, 6 p.m.,24 and in accordance with the procedure outlined briefly to you in the Department’s telegram No. 44 informal suggestions from the public in the United States concerning products to be considered in connection with the proposed trade agreement with Ecuador will be received by this Government until February 4. Shortly thereafter we wish to be able to release a list of products in regard to which the United States will consider the granting of concessions to Ecuador, such list to accompany formal public announcement of intention to negotiate a trade agreement and fixing dates for the presentation of formal briefs and for oral hearings.
You are requested to ask the Ecuadoran Government to submit as soon as possible descriptions of any products, in addition to those it has already brought to this Government’s attention (as reported in your despatch No. 632 of December 14, 193625), in which it is interested in obtaining tariff reductions or bindings in the agreement. You should point out to the Ecuadoran Government in this connection that the general practice of the United States is to limit the concessions which it grants to a country to products of which that country supplies a principal or an important proportion of the total imports of each of such products into the United States. Bearing this general practice in mind the list submitted by the Ecuadoran Government [Page 486] should be established with as great care as possible since it will be difficult to add any new items to it once it has been made public. It should however be clearly understood that the proposed publication of a list of products in connection with the formal announcement of intention to negotiate a trade agreement will not constitute a commitment by this Government to grant concessions in respect of all of the products so listed. The purpose of publishing the list is to give notice to the American public of all the products under consideration as possible subjects for the granting of concessions to Ecuador, in order that all interested parties may know whether there is occasion for presentation of their views.