651G.11251/9: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in France ( Wilson )

896. Your 1972, November 22, 5 p.m.3 The following telegram has been received from the Consul at Yunnanfu:4

“It is reported here that motor trucks are now included in the list of war materials the transshipment of which through French Indo-China is allegedly prohibited. Purchasers here of American trucks are being seriously inconvenienced by this situation. It is rumored that difficulty can be avoided by paying the full Indo-China import duty on trucks instead of only the usual 4 per cent transit tax. If this is the case it would indicate discrimination against American trucks as it is understood that French trucks are not subject to import duty in Indo-China. A representative of the Owult Motor Car Company has recently arrived in Yunnanfu for the alleged purpose of establishing a branch agency here. This would not appear to be warranted unless that Company contemplated large scale sale of trucks as the sale of passenger cars at present is inconsiderable. French Consulate here professes to know nothing about this matter but I have already received one complaint in this regard.”

The Ford Motor Company and the Rubber Export Association of Akron, Ohio have asked the Department to intervene with the French Government to obtain permission for the shipment in transit through French Indo-China of automobiles, trucks and automotive products.

This Government deprecates the placing of restrictions on trade involved in the reported action of the French authorities. We perceive no warrant for discrimination by the French authorities, in the matter of transit, between American cars or trucks and French cars or trucks, as indicated in Yunnanfu’s telegram quoted above. Moreover, as France has ratified the Convention and Statute on Freedom of Transit, signed at Barcelona on April 20, 1921,5 the French Government, even though the United States has not ratified that convention and statute, is in principle obligated to facilitate transit shipments.

Unless you perceive reasons to the contrary, therefore, it is desired that you discuss this matter informally with the appropriate French authorities and report by telegram to the Department.

Welles
  1. Not found in Department files.
  2. Paul W. Meyer.
  3. League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. vii, p. 11.