611.2331/334b
The Acting Secretary of State to President Roosevelt
My Dear Mr. President: On June 2, 1941 the Secretary wrote to you29 concerning our desire to proceed with trade-agreement negotiations with Peru and set forth the principal bases on which it was tentatively proposed to conduct such negotiations. Your approval having been given, public notice of intention to negotiate was issued on December 29, and public hearings were held on February 2 and 3. The views of interested persons having been received and studied, the trade-agreements organization has now submitted unanimous recommendations on all products, with the exception of long-staple cotton, which were to come under consideration for the possible granting of concessions to Peru. I concur in these recommendations.
The most important products, other than cotton, on which it is recommended that duty reductions be offered are sugar; alpaca, llama and vicuña hair; and certain tropical cabinet woods. It is proposed to offer the maximum permitted reductions to Peru on these products and it is believed that this can be done without any material injury to domestic interests.
It is also proposed to offer reductions in duty on a number of other less important items of interest to Peru, most of which are not produced in this country in significant amounts; to offer to bind certain rates of duty reduced in previous trade agreements; and to bind a number of noncompetitive items on the free list. For your information I enclose a list of the concessions30 which it is now proposed to offer to Peru.
With respect to cotton, unanimous agreement has not yet been reached by the interdepartmental organization regarding the granting of a concession on this product, of major interest to Peru, and a recommendation is therefore not being made at this time. Pending settlement of this question it is proposed to advance the negotiations as far as possible with the Peruvian officials on the basis of the proposals outlined above, and I should appreciate being informed whether these meet with your approval.31
Faithfully yours,
- See Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. vii, p. 542.↩
- Not printed.↩
- President Roosevelt returned the original of this letter with the notation SW OK FDR.↩