Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1939, The American Republics, Volume V

611.3331/247a: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Uruguay ( Dwyre )

Washington , June 28, 1939—4 p.m.

38. In pursuance of the trade-agreement discussions in Montevideo and in accordance with the procedure generally followed in trade-agreement conversations, this Government now desires to ascertain what concessions the Uruguayan Government would expect in return for negotiating a trade agreement on our basis. As a result of exhaustive study of all products of which Uruguay is the chief or an important supplier to the United States, this Government is fully prepared to give consideration to any request, within the authority of the Trade Agreements Act,¹ which the Uruguayan Government may wish to make in regard to the tariff treatment of such products. A memorandum in this sense, which embodies this Government’s proposed basis for a trade agreement (which is in line with the Fowler-Sappington suggestions²), is being sent you by air mail for transmission to the Uruguayan Government. A copy of the memorandum is also being handed to the Uruguayan Minister here and a similar memorandum is being presented to the Argentine Government.

You should, unless you perceive objection, immediately inform the appropriate Uruguayan officials of the foregoing.³ You should strongly impress upon those officials the necessity of avoiding any publicity regarding both the nature of any trade-agreement discussions and the fact that such discussions are in progress.

Hull

1. Approved June 12, 1934, 48 Stat. 943; extended by Joint Resolution of March 1, 1937, 50 Stat. 24.
2. See footnote 3, p. 227.
3. In telegram No. 47, June 30, noon, the Chargé reported that a communication in the sense of this telegram was being sent to the Uruguayan Minister for Foreign Affairs (611.3331/248).