611.2231/390: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Ecuador (Long)
27. Your 41, May 25, 7 p.m. In view of the unsettled situation reported in your telegram, and as a temporary solution pending such time as the Ecuadoran Government arrives at a definite decision on its import control system, you are authorized, prior to June 2, to acknowledge the Foreign Minister’s note of May 335 and subsequent offer of 40 million sucres for the United States in the following terms:
“In view of the difficult economic situation facing Ecuador, my Government would not object, as a temporary measure, pending [Page 621] further clarification of the Ecuadoran import control system, to restrictions on all imports from the United States, including articles covered by Schedule I of the trade agreement, to a total of 40,000,000 sucres for 1939, provided that figure represents in relation to total permitted imports into Ecuador from all countries a percentage of such imports not less than the percentage of total Ecuadoran imports supplied by the United States during a previous representative period, for example, 1936–38. During that period the United States supplied about 34 percent of total Ecuadoran imports. My Government assumes that such restriction will be administered by the Government of Ecuador in a fair and equitable manner as between imports of individual commodities and that in the application of the Ecuadoran import control system, no other or more onerous formalities or requirements will be imposed in connection with imports from the United States than those imposed in connection with imports from any other country.”