Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1937, The American Republics, Volume V

611.2231/114

The Chargé in Ecuador ( Sparks ) to the Secretary of State

No. 680

Quito , January 30, 1937.
[Received February 9.]

Sir: With reference to the Department’s telegram No. 5 of January 25th, 6 p.m., 1937, directing that I request the Ecuadorean Government to submit as soon as possible descriptions of any products in addition to those it has already brought to our attention, as reported in my despatch No. 632 of December 14, 1936,²⁶ in which it is interested in obtaining tariff reductions or bindings in the contemplated trade agreement, I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of my Note No. 7 of January 26, 1937,²⁷ which I delivered in person to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. In this connection I venture to refer to my despatch No. 633 of December 15, 1936,²⁸ with which I forwarded a copy with translation of the Foreign Office note of the same date setting forth the products in which Ecuador is interested in obtaining bindings or tariff reductions in the contemplated agreement. It is not thought that the Ecuadorean Government will desire to add further items to that list, but I shall inform the Department definitely as soon as I receive a reply to my note.

In my conversation with the Minister for Foreign Affairs I felt it desirable to explain to him our procedure in negotiating such agreements since the Minister was not familiar with it as he has been devoting practically his entire time to the boundary negotiations²⁹ in Washington. The Department may be interested to learn that the Minister expressed unqualified admiration of this, what he termed, “unique and practical method” of negotiating a trade agreement.

I would add that the Minister had had a conversation in the morning with Dr. Alberto Guerrero Martínez who is proceeding to the United States in connection with the fishing concession in the Galapagos Islands and also to attempt to interest an American company in the Naranjilla fruit (see my despatch No. 671 of January 19, 1937). The Minister was most enthusiastic about the prospects of this potential industry. I explained to him our general practice to limit concessions to products which a country supplies a principal or important proportion of the total imports of such products into the United States. While the Minister recognized the reasons for this practice, I gathered the impression that Ecuador considers essential a concession on naranjilla fruit juice. I would reiterate the opinion expressed in the last paragraph of my despatch No. 671 of January 19, 1937, to the effect that a concession on this article will facilitate considerably obtaining concessions from Ecuador on articles in which we may be interested. In this connection I venture to refer to the first paragraph on page three of my despatch No. 633 of December 15, 1936, in which I inquired whether it is feasible to grant reductions on naranjilla juice without making the concession applicable to all other juices. If such a procedure is possible it would facilitate negotiations appreciably without affecting our bargaining power on fruit juices in negotiations with other countries.

Respectfully yours,

Edward J. Sparks

26. Foreign Relations, 1936, vol. v, p. 511.
27. Not printed.
28. Foreign Relations, 1936, vol. v, p. 512.
29. See pp. 46 ff.