611.41D31/64
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. John R. Minter of the Division of European Affairs
The Irish Minister came at Mr. Sayre’s request. Mr. Sayre reminded him of the several formal and informal conversations which [Page 193] had been held both here and at Dublin regarding a basis for trade agreement negotiations between the two countries and stated that we were now ready to enter into more formal discussions, if his government wished to do so. Mr. Sayre told him that we had examined the list of products which he had given us in September14 and that, according to our practice of considering concessions only to countries which have been principal or important suppliers of our imports, we had found that it would be possible to consider granting concessions to Ireland in the list of products which was handed him. He was told that this list was made from statistical and other information available to us, but that if the Irish Government could submit information making a good case for other products we would be glad to consider it.
Mr. Sayre recited the objectives of our trade agreement program and the principles under which the agreements are made, stressing chiefly (1) most-favored-nation treatment in respect of tariffs, quotas, exchange control, et cetera, (2) disregard of bilateral balancing, and (3) the rule of granting concessions to principal or important suppliers. He expressed the hope that his government would be willing to negotiate on that basis.
Mr. Brennan asked a few questions, which were answered as follows:
Q. Would we insist that Ireland extend to all countries the concessions it makes to us in such an agreement?
A. No. While we believe that generalized most-favored-nation treatment is a powerful contribution to improvement in world trade, we could not dictate the policy of other nations.
Q. Would this agreement require the abolition of Empire preferences?
A. No. We have recognized Empire preference in other agreements, although we don’t like it. Some of our requests could conceivably require consultation with the United Kingdom Government regarding modification of an existing bound margin of preference, as has been the case in our agreements already negotiated with Empire countries.
Q. What are the concessions which Ireland would obtain through generalization as a result of the British Agreement?
A. We would be able to give him a list of such concessions at the end of next week. However, he was at liberty now to report that the British Agreement, if signed, would contain a wide range of concessions in all the textile schedules of our tariff, thus covering most, if not all, of the textile items in the Irish September list. It appeared [Page 194] to our experts extremely difficult, if not impossible, to make a statistical case for independent concessions to Ireland on any of the textiles.
Q. Were the products in the list given him already in other trade agreements?
A. No. The concessions which might be granted on these products would be the first alterations of their rates of duty since the act of 1930.
Mr. Brennan stated that he thought he understood the situation thoroughly, but said that he would take advantage of our offer to elucidate if he struck a snag in making his report.
[On May 16, 1939, the Irish Minister, Mr. Robert Brennan, was informed that the American Government was prepared to make, at any time agreeable to the Irish Government, a formal announcement of trade agreement negotiations between the two countries. At the same time he was handed a list of products on which the United States would consider offering concessions to Ireland and a second list of products on which the United States would expect concessions from Ireland (611.41D31/66). It appears, however, that no further action was taken with respect to these negotiations.]
- Not found in Department files.↩