611.3731/2141
The Cuban Chargé (Barón) to the Secretary of State
Excellency: With reference to this Embassy’s confidential note dated May 25 last I have the honor to write to Your Excellency to inform you that my Government has been pleased to give me the pertinent instructions that I might reply to the confidential note dated the 24th of that month in which Your Excellency was good enough to submit for the consideration of the Government of Cuba, in the form of a memorandum, the proposals of the Government of the United States relative to the modification and amplification of Schedules I and II of the existing Trade Agreement of 1934, and, further, to explain the reasons which oblige your Government to decline to discuss, almost in their entirety, the proposals contained in the memoranda enclosed with this Embassy’s notes of February 1673 and April 1373 of this year.
The Government of Cuba has studied with the greatest attention and with the keenest desire to reach an agreement advantageous to the Republic and to the United States the text of the counter-proposals and explanations communicated in the aforesaid note of May 24.
The Government of the Republic has given particular consideration to the fully grounded statements according to which Your Excellency [Page 564] defines the intention of your Government to negotiate a limited commercial adjustment which, necessarily, places outside the scope of these negotiations a good part of the Cuban proposals contained in the memoranda enclosed with this Embassy’s notes of February 16 and April 13 last.
Notwithstanding the disappearance of the specific reasons for urgency which, eight months ago, made it advisable to reduce as much as possible the scope of the contemplated changes in and additions to Schedules I and II of the existing Trade Agreement, my Government agrees in the circumstances with the restrictive view maintained by Your Excellency in your note of May 24 and, desirous of contributing without delay to the greatest success of these negotiations, amends the point of view maintained in this Embassy’s note of February 16 and, for the time being, abandons its firm intention of negotiating a full and comprehensive adjustment of those Schedules, an adjustment which it believes, and desires so to declare, is urgently necessary for the greatest stability and the greatest real and reciprocal benefits from the contractual arrangement regulating trade relations between our respective countries.
The Government of the Republic further desires to put on record that it sincerely trusts that it may be possible in the near future, and with the cordial and friendly cooperation of Your Excellency’s Government, to transform into a satisfactory reality the proposal mentioned in the foregoing paragraph.
The amendment of the full and comprehensive view given in this Embassy’s notes of February 16 and April 13 and the proposals contained therein requires, in my Government’s opinion, in order that the course of the present negotiations may be efficiently directed, a limited formulation of its proposals which now, of course, must meet the restricted point of view maintained by Your Excellency’s Government and which, as stated above, the Republic’s Government shares and accepts in the circumstances.
In accord with this restrictive view, my Government, considering all its proposals contained in this Embassy’s notes mentioned above not to have been formulated, considers the products of the soil and industry of Cuba and of the United States specifically mentioned in the enclosed memorandum75 to be matter open to discussion and negotiation for the purpose of modifying and amplifying Schedules I and II of the existing Trade Agreement of 1934.
The Government of the Republic wishes to state that it considers the proposals relative to Cuban sugar and tobacco, formulated in the above-mentioned notes of this Embassy and contained in Your Excellency’s note of May 24, to be measures to repair damages and changes suffered in the customs situation and [to produce]76 the legitimate [Page 565] benefits guaranteed the said products of Cuban soil by the existing Trade Agreement, as a result of legal modifications of an internal order which occurred in the United States in 1936 and 1937.
The character of just reparation possessed by the Cuban and American proposals relative to sugar and tobacco from Cuba excludes these proposals from the field of discussion or study of reciprocal concessions on the part of the Government of the Republic and, accordingly, places the proposals of the Government of the United States relative to rice, textiles, canned foods, et cetera, which are studied and answered in the enclosed memorandum, in a position to require corresponding compensations in favor of the Government of Cuba.
My Government limits its request for such compensation to two of the proposals contained in this Embassy’s notes of February 16 and April 13, which refer to the establishment by the Government of the United States of an import quota on meat, now reduced to five thousand tons, with duties similar to those of Canada and applicable to fresh and chilled or frozen meats, and to a change in the period of time during which entry of Cuban vegetables into the United States is permitted, as proposed in detail in the enclosed memorandum.
Favorable consideration of both proposals by Your Excellency’s Government would put my Government in a no less favorable position to discuss and negotiate the concession to your Government of an import quota on rice produced and harvested in the United States, amounting to 90,000,000 (ninety million) pounds, with a low duty and in accordance with the specific stipulations contained in the enclosed memorandum.
The specific schedules, which I also have the honor to transmit to you, form part of the said memorandum.
Allow me, Excellency, to urge with the greatest respect that, if your Government considers it advisable, it inform my Government of the opinion which it may have of the proposals relative to certain changes of a general character, contained in this Embassy’s notes of February 16 and April 5.77
I take [etc.]