Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1938, The British Commonwealth, Europe, Near East, and Africa, Volume II

611.6331/165

The German Embassy to the Department of State

[Translation]

By direction of his Government, the German Ambassador has the honor to advise His Excellency the Secretary of State of the following:

On April 7, 1938, the text of a letter from the President of the United States to the Secretary of the Treasury, of April 6th,⁷⁷ was published in the American newspapers, in which letter the President instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to remove the word “Austria” from Section 2 of his letter of March 15, 1938,⁷⁸ regarding the application of the tariff concessions in the trade agreement concluded with Czechoslovakia;⁷⁹ in other words, to remove, effective May 6, 1938, Austria from the list of those states which enjoy tariff concessions on the basis of the Trade Agreement Act of June 12, 1934.

Despite reunion with the Reich, Austria has remained for the present an independent tariff area, at the border of which tariffs are collected according to Austrian laws and treaties. Even for imports from Germany, the tariff line has been maintained for the time being. In this state of affairs, according to Article 2 of the Law on the Reunion, all Austrian treaties with third states concerning trade and payments actually continue to be applied, on the presupposition of reciprocity.

Under these circumstances, the German Government therefore considers itself justified in expecting that upon importation into the United States of America, Austrian goods will continue to be granted the tariff concessions on the basis of the “Trade Agreement Act”. The United States Government will be notified in due time by the German Government of the time at which the German tariff and exchange regulations will be extended to Austria.

The German Ambassador would be obliged to the Secretary of State of the United States if all steps required under these circumstances were taken to bring it about that the country of Austria is, up to that time, left on the list of those countries enjoying the tariff concessions of the “Trade Agreement Act”, the instructions issued to the Treasury Department being changed.

Washington , April 14, 1938.

77. Department of State, Press Releases, April 9, 1938, p. 474.
78. Ibid., March 19, 1938, p. 371.
79. Signed March 7, 1938, Department of State Executive Agreement Series No. 147, or 53 Stat. 2293; for correspondence, see pp. 223 ff.