611.3231 Mixed Commission/17
The Under Secretary of State (Welles) to President Roosevelt97
My Dear Mr. President: When the Brazilian Financial Mission was in Washington in June and July of this year, one of the matters under discussion was the improvement of commercial relations between the two countries, with particular reference to the competition experienced by American products in the Brazilian market from the subsidized and compensation trade of third countries, particularly Germany. In the course of the discussions the Brazilian Minister of Finance asked this Department to make suggestions as to possible means of promoting full realization of the advantages contemplated in the trade agreement between the two countries, with particular reference to means which might be taken by the Brazilian Government to assure American products equality of treatment and reasonable competitive equality as compared with the subsidized and compensation trade referred to above.
One of the proposals which we made at this end was that it might be very useful to set up two small committees of representatives of American and Brazilian interests, one committee to function in Rio de Janeiro and one in New York. The functions of the committees would be to keep an eye on the course of trade between the two countries, to observe the operation of the trade agreement, and to report thereon to their Governments. Presumably the committees would also be a sort of clearing house between the business communities of the two countries with reference to the problems of German competition and special trading procedures.
[Page 402]The Minister of Finance was entirely agreeable to this suggestion, and in a note received from the Ambassador of Brazil dated July 14, 1937 and in a joint public statement issued on July 15 by the Secretary of State and the Minister of Finance of Brazil, reference was made to the desirability of creating two such mixed commissions.
In recent weeks the Department has been engaged in conversations with the Brazilian Government, with the American Embassy in Rio de Janeiro, and with interested trade groups in this country with a view to settling questions of procedure and of personnel. The Brazilian Government has now informed us that it is agreeable to moving ahead to the creation of these commissions and the exchange of the names of the persons who will serve on them, by January 15, 1938. The two Governments are in agreement that on each of the two commissions the commercial interests of each country shall be represented by two private persons, one of whom will be an alternate. They are in agreement that the two joint committees shall have independent standing and be guided entirely by the wish to foster trade between the two countries. They will be in no sense authoritative bodies for policing the trade agreement between the United States and Brazil but they will establish an organization representative of commercial interests with the specific purpose of observing trade relations between the two countries, as indicated above.
The two Governments are also in agreement that the commissions and their members, having no official standing as representatives of the Governments, will not be entitled to remuneration for services or expenses. Finally, it has been agreed that appointment of the American members of both commissions shall be made by this Government and that the Brazilian Government shall make the appointment of the Brazilian members of both commissions. The appointments are to be for a specified term of two years.
This Department is now prepared to recommend the following American members of the commissions: for the active member on the New York commission, Mr. Eugene P. Thomas, President, National Foreign Trade Council, Incorporated; for the alternate member on the New York commission, Mr. Hem an Greenwood, Assistant to the President, United States Steel Products Company; for the active member on the Rio de Janeiro commission, Mr. Stephen P. Danforth, Manager of the local firm “Casa Pratt”, Rio de Janeiro, and formerly President of the American Chamber of Commerce in that city; for the alternate member, Mr. C. Richard Varty, Manager of the National City Bank of New York, São Paulo, Chairman of the Banking, Finance and Exchange Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce, São Paulo.
No official inquiry has been made of these nominees as to their willingness to serve upon these committees on the terms outlined above, [Page 403] although it is known that Mr. Thomas at least would accept such an appointment and it is believed that all of the nominees are aware that their names have been suggested to the Department in this connection.
If you concur in the establishment of these mixed commissions, in the description of their composition and functions, and in the nominations made herein, I should be pleased, upon instruction from you, to ascertain whether the nominees will be willing to serve upon these commissions and to prepare the appropriate instruments designating them as members, and to proceed to the prompt establishment with the Government of Brazil of these commissions.
Faithfully yours,
- A notation on the photostatic copy of this letter in the Department flies reads as follows: “SW OK FDR”.↩