611.9131/114: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Iran ( Engert )

46. Your 68, April 14, 1 p.m. Please deliver the substance of the following message orally to the Prime Minister:

This Government welcomes the Prime Minister’s statement that there has been no diminution in the interest of the Iranian Government in trade relations with the United States. Although this Government stated in February that it would give sympathetic consideration to an Iranian proposal to resume conversations looking to the negotiation of a reciprocal trade agreement, no specific observations in this regard have been received from the Iranian Government. It may be noted in this connection that the Trade Agreements Act has now been extended by Congress as from June 12, 1940 for 3 years.76

The other plans of the Iranian Government for promoting economic relations with the United States, as previously explained, involve arrangements by the Iranian representatives in this country with independent private and governmental organizations. The Department of Commerce, taking the Prime Minister’s views as a point of departure, has supplied the Iranian representatives here with specific suggestions and with the specific results of its inquiries and studies concerning the prospects for increasing Irano-American trade and the means for bringing this about. We shall of course continue to give all appropriate counsel and assistance. The arrangements on which the Iranian representatives are working require careful thought and planning if they are to be of real value and effectiveness and cannot be completed overnight. We understand that these matters are being actively pursued under the guidance of the Iranian Minister with whom we are in frequent and cordial communication.

If the Iranian Government desires to follow up the question of granting an oil concession to the Standard of New Jersey, the Legation here would appear to be the appropriate channel of communication.

Hull
  1. Joint Resolution approved April 12, 1940; 54 Stat. 107.