659.116/164a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Denmark (Owsley)
4. Department’s telegram No. 2, February 11, 1935, 7 p.m.,2 and other correspondence concerning Danish discrimination against American imports.
Although no recent official communications have been exchanged by the two Governments with respect to Danish discrimination against American imports, the Department has continued from time to time to give the matter active consideration. Complaints from American exporters indicate that the exchange control authorities have continued to discriminate against American goods in the allotment of import permits, and the new exchange control law, effective January 1, 1938, contains no provisions giving grounds for expecting the termination of this discrimination.
You are accordingly instructed, to call on the Foreign Minister and leave with him the following note:
“The Government of the United States has given sympathetic consideration to Your Excellency’s note of March 29, 19353 and has continued to hope that the Danish Government would find it possible to pursue a policy which would satisfactorily ameliorate the conditions described in the note under reference and which, at the same time, would involve no discrimination against products of the United States.
“Since March 29, 1935, 15 trade agreements negotiated by the Government of the United States with foreign countries have become effective. In harmony with the provisions of the Convention of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation signed April 26, 1826,4 the Government of the United States has extended to products of Denmark the benefits of tariff concessions granted by the United States in these trade agreements. The benefits which have accrued to Denmark through the generalization of these trade-agreement concessions are [Page 238] important. United States statistics of imports from Denmark for the years 1929 to 1936 inclusive, indicate that imports of products on which reduced duties had been granted in trade agreements in effect on January 1, 1937, amounted to about 36 percent of the average total dutiable American imports from Denmark for these years, and that imports of these commodities increased from $769,000 in 1935 to $1,039,000 in 1936 or by 35 percent while imports from Denmark of all other dutiable commodities decreased slightly during the same period from $1,430,247 to $1,424,628. As additional trade agreements are negotiated and become effective an increased number of products of interest to Denmark may be expected to benefit from the generalization of concessions granted by the United States.
“On the other hand, under the Danish system of import control, imports from the United States have decreased while Danish imports of similar commodities from other countries have increased. Danish statistics indicate that imports from the United States declined from 154.1 million crowns or 10.5 percent of total imports in 1931, to 79.0 million crowns or only 5.3 percent of total imports in 1936. In contrast, Danish imports from the United Kingdom increased from 218.6 million crowns or 14.9 percent of total imports in 1931 to 542.3 million crowns or 36.5 percent of total imports in 1936. The continued failure of the Danish authorities to accord non-discriminatory treatment to American commerce has, therefore, been a source of deep disappointment to my Government.
“My Government is pleased to observe that under the new Danish foreign exchange control law which became effective January 1, 1938, provision is made for some expansion in the list of commodities for which import licenses are not required. The law does not, in itself, however, appear to afford a basis for expecting that imports from the United States of products now or hereafter subject to import permits will be accorded non-discriminatory treatment.
“While the Government of the United States has viewed with sympathy the efforts of the Danish Government to improve the national economy of Denmark, it is finding it increasingly difficult to justify the extension to Denmark of the benefits of generalization of trade-agreement concessions, in view of the long-continued discrimination against American products.
“My Government, being desirous of enlisting the support of the Danish Government in the task of widening the application of the principle of equality of treatment to all forms of import and exchange control, hopes that, in view of the continued accord by it of most-favored-nation treatment to Danish products, the Danish Government will give the most serious consideration to the situation and will be able to give assurances at an early date that American commerce will be accorded non-discriminatory treatment.”
Please keep the Department currently informed by telegram of developments including date on which note is delivered5 and telegraph in full the Danish reply.
- Ibid., p. 172.↩
- See telegram No. 4, March 29, 1935, 4 p.m., from the Minister in Denmark, ibid., p. 175.↩
- William M. Malloy (ed.), Treaties, Conventions, etc., Between the United states of America and Other Powers, 1776–1909 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1910), vol. i, p. 373.↩
- The note as delivered was dated February 23, 1938.↩