612.003/730
The Ambassador in Mexico (Daniels) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 14.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to my despatches 6067 of February 4, and 6068 of February 5, 1938,51 transmitting the products of exhaustive surveys of the increased tariff schedules put into effect by Mexico last month, which were prepared in the office of the Commercial Attaché. I am enclosing today a letter from Mr. Edward D. McLaughlin, Acting Commercial Attaché,52 which contains a study made with a view to ascertaining whether the increases bear more heavily upon the United States than upon other nations: that is to say, whether there has been, as had been alleged, a special discrimination against the United States. The result of this study does not indicate any intended discrimination against the United States and seems to bear out—though unintentionally, I am sure—what the Minister of Hacienda told me: that Germany was hit harder than other nations.
I understand that Hacienda officials and experts are making a similar study so that the Minister and the President may know the actual workings of the new rates. These studies and reports will not, of course, affect the seriousness and unwisdom of the raising of commercial barriers in violation both of the letter and the spirit of the declarations for which both Mexico and the United States voted at the Buenos Aires Conference last year.
Respectfully yours,