611.41D31/51a
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Ireland (Cudahy)
Sir: Reference is made to the Department’s telegram dated January 20, 1938, in regard to the possibility of negotiating a trade agreement with Ireland.
It is believed that the enclosed copies of the standard general provisions4 will serve to amplify and clarify the Department’s policy on certain basic points, outlined in the telegraphic instruction. It is suggested that one copy be given to Mr. de Valera, if you perceive no objections.
Your comments on the enclosed survey5 of the possibilities of a trade agreement with Ireland are requested. This survey and the attached statistical studies should be considered confidential. From it you will see that the necessary adherence to the chief supplier principle in making tariff concessions naturally limits the possible scope of [Page 188] a trade agreement with Ireland, in view of the small number of items of which Ireland is principal supplier to the United States.
It should be also noted, however, that there are a number of products of which the United Kingdom is the principal supplier which are also exported in considerable quantities from Ireland to the United States. It is not unlikely that there may be duty concessions on many of these products if the projected trade agreement with the United Kingdom is successfully concluded.6 In that event the number of concessions which possibly could be given to Ireland in its own right would be distinctly increased, as explained in paragraph five of the telegraphic instruction.
The reference to the preparation by the Legation of statistics and tariff information made in the last paragraph of the enclosed survey may be ignored for the time being.
Two copies of a speech by Mr. Sayre are enclosed7 as of possible assistance in your discussions with Irish officials. There are also enclosed, as further illustrations of procedure, copies of the preliminary and formal notices of intention to negotiate a trade agreement with Czechoslovakia,8 one of which may be handed to them.
Very truly yours,
- For text of original standard general provisions, see Foreign Relations, 1935, vol. i, p. 541. Minor changes in these standard provisions were made from time to time.↩
- Not attached to file copy of instruction.↩
- See pp. 1 ff.↩
- Address delivered by Francis B. Sayre, Assistant Secretary of State, entitled “How Trade Agreements Are Made,” delivered at the World Trade Dinner in Cleveland, Ohio, November 4, 1937; for text, see Department of State Commercial Policy Series No. 42 (publication No. 1098).↩
- See Department of State, Press Releases, May 8, 1937, pp. 317–323, and September 4, 1937, pp. 195–204.↩