611.5331/185
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. John C. Ross of the Division of Trade Agreements
Dr. Bianchi4 called this morning to inquire whether the Department might be prepared to give him at an early date the promised list of products of which the United States has been an important source of Portuguese imports. He thought that if we could give him this list within a few days we might then take a little longer in preparing the draft of general provisions for a proposed trade agreement with Portugal.
I told Dr. Bianchi that the list of products was ready and was being checked with the Department of Commerce and that I saw no reason why we could not give it to him by the middle of next week. With reference to the draft general provisions, I suggested that his government’s consideration of those provisions would probably be facilitated if we attached a brief comment explaining the nature of each article. The Minister agreed that this would be desirable and that it would probably save time in the end.
The Minister said that an official of his government who has been travelling in Latin America in connection with commercial negotiations with various countries in that area is expected to leave for home rather soon. The Minister hoped that it would be possible for this official to stop in Washington and discuss trade-agreement matters with officers of the Department. I said that we would be very happy to see this gentleman if Dr. Bianchi wished to bring him in.
- João Antonio de Bianchi, Portuguese Minister.↩