611.5531/788: Telegram
The Chargé in Belgium (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:12 p.m.]
96. My 94, August 8.11 I am in receipt of a note from the Foreign Office stating that in view of the arguments advanced in my note transmitting pertinent portions of Department’s telegram No. 47, July 31, 5 p.m., the Belgian Government accepts that the announcement to negotiate and the public hearings shall relate for the present to the three lists of products contained in Annex A accompanying the memorandum of May 19 and in Department’s telegram No. 47, July 31, 5 p.m.
The Belgian Government reserves the right to transmit to the United States Government in September, after consultation with the groups of producers in the Belgo-Luxemburg Economic Union, an additional list of products to be discussed during the approaching Belgo-American negotiations.
Full text by mail.11
In conversation with Mr. Suetens of the Foreign Office yesterday he intimated that this list might consist of a considerable number of articles. I believe that various groups in the Economic Union will endeavor to influence the Belgian Government in this sense.
[For text of public notice of intention to negotiate a new trade agreement with Belgium, issued August 16, 1939, by the Department of State, see Department of State, Press Releases, August 19, 1939, pages 135 ff. For additional public notice, issued August 22, 1939, see ibid., August 26, 1939, page 170. The notice of August 16, 1939, contains the list of products on which the United States would consider granting concessions to the Belgo-Luxemburg Economic Union and the Belgian Congo.]