611.3131/668
The Secretary of State to
the Ambassador in Venezuela (Corrigan)
No. 179
Washington, September 4, 1940.
Sir: Reference is made to your despatch no. 429
of August 1, 1940 enclosing a note and memorandum from the Minister of
Foreign Affairs regarding the balance of trade between the United States
and Venezuela.
There is enclosed the text of a note in reply which the Embassy may in
its discretion hand to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
With respect to the Embassy’s request for information regarding the
balance of payments between the United States and Venezuela, there is
enclosed some information on this subject.3 The sheets enclosed have been extracted from a
preliminary copy of one of a series of comprehensive studies on Latin
American trade and commercial policy recently prepared by the Tariff
Commission. It is anticipated that the Embassy will in due course
receive a complete set of these documents. In connection with the
enclosed material, the qualifications appearing in the text as to the
adequacy of the figures given in the table, should be noted.
Very truly yours,
For the Secretary of State:
A. A. Berle, Jr.
[Enclosure]
Draft of Note to the Venezuelan Minister for
Foreign Affairs (Gil Borges)4
Excellency: In reply to Your Excellency’s
note of July 25, 1940, with its enclosure, I have the honor to
inform you that I have been requested by my Government to state that
the careful consideration which it merits has been given to that
communication. With respect thereto my Government wishes to offer
the following comments.
My Government realizes that during the last three years the normal
excess of merchandise imports into the United States from Venezuela
over exports to Venezuela has shifted to an export balance. Under
normal conditions of international trade, as the Government of
Venezuela is aware, such a situation is not unusual and need cause
no concern to the nation with the import balance provided there is
freedom to dispose of the proceeds of exports to countries in the
trade with which an export balance exists. It has been the objective
of the commercial policy of my Government in recent years, through
trade agreements such as that concluded between Venezuela and the
United States,5 and
otherwise, to create and maintain such freedom of international
commerce as will permit the liquidation of trade balances by
triangular methods rather than attempting to achieve approximate
balances between the exports and imports of individual nations.
Developments arising out of the pursuit of policies of extreme
nationalism and trade bilateralism by certain countries even before
the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, in addition to the trade
problems resulting from the war have, it is realized, made it
increasingly difficult to conduct international commerce upon a
normal or sound basis. My Government is fully cognizant of the
difficulties faced by Venezuela and other American Republics
similarly affected by this situation. In this connection the trade
agreement between the United States and Venezuela has been and is
helping in some measure to ameliorate the difficulties referred to
by Your Excellency in that more favorable marketing opportunities in
the United States have been afforded to petroleum and other
Venezuelan products. The volume of direct and indirect imports of
petroleum from Venezuela into the United States has shown
considerable increase during the period of the agreement and such
imports have, of course, been subject to only one-half the rate of
import tax previously levied.
The program of economic measures suggested by my Government at the
recent meeting in Habana of the Foreign Ministers of the
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American Republics was
specifically directed toward the solution of such problems as those
referred to in Your Excellency’s note. Every energy is being
devoted, in the discussions now being held in Washington by the
Inter-American Financial and Economic Advisory Committee, toward
developing cooperative action to solve those problems and it is the
earnest hope of my Government that remedial measures may be adopted
in the near future. In this connection my Government will at all
times welcome and give most sympathetic consideration to specific
proposals which may be advanced by the Government of Venezuela.
Accept, Excellency, the assurances of my most distinguished
consideration.
