611.41D31/50a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Ireland (Cudahy)
2. If you perceive no objections, please see Mr. de Valera2 and after referring to overtures in regard to a trade agreement made by Ireland in recent years, inquire if his government is still interested in such an agreement. If Mr. de Valera replies in the affirmative you should state that we are prepared to enter into confidential exploratory discussions with a view to determining whether trade agreement negotiations between the two countries can be undertaken with reasonable hope of successful conclusion.
In the course of your conversation you should explain that the United States Government is engaged upon a comprehensive trade agreements program having as its object an increase in the general level of world trade by the reduction of excessive barriers to international trade and the removal of discriminations. It is with these broad and liberal purposes in view that the United States undertakes its trade agreement negotiations.
Statements made by various Irish officials, and by Mr. de Valera himself, indicate that a trade agreement with the United States has at times been looked upon by them as a means of achieving a more even balance of trade between the two countries. You should state to Mr. de Valera that the trade agreements now being negotiated do not have bilateral balancing as an objective, since this thesis is known to have reacted detrimentally rather than favorably upon the main objective of increasing the general level of world trade, and could not, therefore, in the long run serve the best interests of either country. In the course of your remarks on this subject you might point out that the balance of all payments between the two countries shows regularly a large surplus to Ireland’s credit.
[Page 186]You should also point out to Mr. de Valera that the agreements entered into by the United States under the Trade Agreements Act3 embody reciprocal pledges of unconditional most-favored-nation treatment applied to all forms of trade and payments control and that you believe that agreement on this principle is an essential feature to the establishment of a basis for negotiations.
It is the general policy of the United States to confine the concessions which it grants in a trade agreement to products of which the other country is a principal supplier and to ask no greater consideration. The concessions which the United States could grant to Ireland on products not included in agreements with other countries would therefore probably be very few. If, however, the United States has granted a concession to another country on a certain product of which Ireland is a substantial although not the principal source of supply, it should be feasible to grant a concession on that product to Ireland in its own right. Concessions granted to other countries would of course be extended to Ireland in any event so long as Ireland did not discriminate against the trade of the United States. The advantage to Ireland in obtaining in its own right concessions on products in which it is interested lies in the fact that it could then continue to enjoy these concessions if the other agreements containing them should be terminated.
The first stage of any exploratory discussion could be profitably confined to a clarification of understanding on the preceding points but you could say that the Irish Government, having agreed upon the foregoing principles, might wish to present to us at any time through its representative here a list of the products it will wish to have considered.
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