611.9131/143
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Cecil T. White of the Division of Commercial Policy and Agreements
| Participants: | The Iranian Minister; |
| The Iranian Trade Representative (Mr. Amerie); | |
| Mr. Hawkins;33 | |
| Mr. White. |
After a brief review of previous discussions regarding the proposed trade agreement between the United States and Iran, the Minister said that he and Mr. Amerie had called to ask whether the draft agreement submitted on September 3, 194034 would be acceptable to this Government.
[Page 369]In reply, Mr. Hawkins explained that certain parts of the Iranian proposal are not acceptable, particularly the general exception permitting discrimination in favor of Germany and Soviet Russia with which countries Iran has clearing agreements. He went on to say that the trade-agreements organization has been studying the difficulties presented by the Iranian requirements with a view to finding a formula which would meet the necessities of the Iranian Government and still be acceptable to us. Also, studies are being made regarding possible schedule items and soon we would be able to present these data to the Trade Agreements Committee for its consideration. He pointed out in this connection that announcement of public notice of intention to negotiate might be expedited if we could receive the Iranian request list.
In reply to a question by the Minister regarding the time a reply could be expected, Mr. Hawkins indicated that although he could not give a precise date he thought it would be a matter of weeks and not of months. He went on to say that the work on general provisions is far advanced and, in fact, a set of draft provisions had been prepared in the Division which he felt would be acceptable to the Iranian Government. The Minister requested and was given a copy of the draft35 (marked “Tentative and Unofficial”). Mr. Hawkins stated that the draft as yet had not been considered by the trade-agreements organization and is subject to change.
The Minister wished to know in what respects the draft just given him differed from the Iranian draft of September 3, 1940. Mr. Hawkins pointed out that the provisions in the Iranian draft were very detailed and comprehensive in character and that they provided for certain automatic responses to certain stipulated conditions; because of the specific character of these provisions, the Iranian Government had felt it necessary to include certain reservations, which would be difficult for us to accept. We had attempted to avoid the necessity for such reservations by drawing up a very short agreement, loosely drawn and general in nature, in which the objectives of the agreement would be stated, but the operation of which would be worked out between the two Governments when specific problems should arise. Mr. Hawkins noted that the exchange article merely required that exchange controls should not be operated so as to divert trade from the other contracting country and that the monopoly article called only for fair and equitable treatment. He then called attention to the consultation and termination article and pointed out that under it specific problems would be dealt with as they arose. He expressed the belief that the termination clause is not in practice [Page 370] likely to be invoked, since it would be to the interest of both parties to work out problems arising under the agreement rather than have the agreement terminated, with the consequent loss of the advantages provided for therein.
The Minister and Mr. Amerie indicated that, in their opinion, if a proposal along the lines of our tentative draft should be made, it would be acceptable to their Government.