611.4731/298
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Trade Agreements (Deimel)
| Participants: | Mr. Sayre, |
| Mr. Keith Officer, | |
| Mr. Minter,21 | |
| Mr. Deimel. |
Mr. Officer called by appointment and handed to Mr. Sayre a “tentative list of concessions” his Government would request in a trade agreement. A copy of this list is attached.22
Mr. Officer explained the nature of the list and said it was felt to be a modest list and he hoped it would be possible to go ahead. He said that they understood our procedure perfectly and that negotiations with Australia would have to be conducted quite separately and independently of negotiations with the United Kingdom but that after all they were interrelated since Australia’s position in facilitating the fully satisfactory outcome of our negotiations with the United Kingdom would be improved if negotiations were under way between Australia and the United States. In this connection he said they felt they were far behind Canada and therefore hoped that a speedy beginning could be made. Mr. Sayre replied that the list submitted by his Government would be studied; that in accordance with our usual practice we would want to discuss first the various major points relating to the basis of an agreement before discussing commodities in detail, and that he would plan to ask Mr. Officer in [Page 134] some time next week for a further discussion. It was agreed to regard these conversations as strictly informal and confidential.