560.AL/12–545
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
Sir: Reference is made to the Department’s circular telegrams of November 2, 5 p.m. and November 5, 9 a.m.,20 and to the Department’s circular instruction of November 14, regarding the proposed publication of “Proposals for Expansion of World Trade and Employment.”
- 1.
- When the document entitled “Proposals for Expansion of World Trade and
Employment” has been published, and copies have been transmitted to the
Government of the United Kingdom in accordance with the circular
communications referred to above, you are requested to deliver to the
appropriate British officials the following invitation from the
Government of the United States:
“The Government of the United States refers to the document ‘Proposals for Expansion of World Trade and Employment’ which has been transmitted to the Government of the United Kingdom, and to the proposal of the Government of the United States that the United Nations Organization convene in the summer of 1946 a conference on [Page 1346] trade and employment to consider and take action to realize the objectives referred to in that document.
“It is the view of the Government of the United States that the success of the proposed conference can best be realized if there is thoroughgoing preparation for it; and that such preparation should include concrete plans, which the principal trading nations of the world would be prepared to adopt, for the actual reduction of tariffs and other trade barriers, and the elimination of discriminatory trade treatment, in accordance with the objectives agreed upon in Article VII of the Mutual-Aid Agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom.
“The Government of the United States therefore has the honor to ask the Government of the United Kingdom whether it would be prepared to appoint representatives to attend a preliminary meeting in March or April of 1946, to be held at a place to be determined. It would be the purpose of the meeting, which would be attended by the other governments accepting invitations, to:
- a)
- negotiate, for the consideration of the proposed conference, concrete arrangements for the relaxation of tariffs and trade barriers of all kinds which would command the support of governments attending the conference; and
- b)
- to consult, and to reach such preliminary understandings as may be practicable, with regard to other topics on the proposed agenda for the conference referred to above.
“In order that the representatives of the United States may make a practical contribution to the work of the preliminary meeting, it will be necessary for the Government of the United States, under the procedure required by the Trade Agreements Act, to issue public notice of intention to negotiate for the reduction of tariffs and other trade barriers with the governments intending to participate in that meeting. In view of the public hearings and other procedures required by law this notice should be issued at least three months prior to the beginning of definitive international discussions by the representatives of the United States. Accordingly, the Government of the United States hopes to be able to issue, by the end of this year or early in 1946, a public notice of intention to negotiate with the United Kingdom. In order to make this possible, it is urged that the Government of the United Kingdom indicate, prior to December 31, 1945, whether it will participate in the preliminary meeting.
“In accordance with customary practice, the proposed public notice will be accompanied by a list of the products which will be considered for the granting of trade concessions to the United Kingdom and on which public hearings will be held. The list will include those products of which the United Kingdom has been, or is likely to become, a principal supplier to the United States.
“This invitation is also being sent to the following governments:
France, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, India, Belgium, Luxembourg, Brazil, Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, U.S.S.R. and China.”
- 2.
- The Department intends to send you shortly an instruction providing
detailed information regarding its views as to the nature
[Page 1347]
of the agreement to be
sought at the preliminary meeting in the spring of 1946, the procedures
which the Department will propose for the reaching of such agreement,
and the relation between this meeting and the general international
conference on trade and employment which it is hoped would be held
sometime in the summer of 1946. Pending receipt of this instruction you
are authorized to provide the appropriate British officials with a
statement containing the following explanatory outline:
- A.
- At the preliminary meeting in the spring of 1946, to be attended by the United States and by such of the other fourteen countries receiving invitations which have accepted the invitation, each country would present a schedule of the tariff concessions which it Would be prepared to grant in an agreement with the other countries attending the meeting, such an agreement also to contain mutually acceptable provisions dealing with tariff preferences and non-tariff trade barriers. Each country should also be prepared to make requests of the tariff concessions which it desires to receive from each of the other countries attending the meeting.
- B.
- The tariff concessions in the schedule proposed by each country would be offered to all the other countries as a group. Each country would thus obtain in its own right all of the concessions made by each of the other countries.
- C.
- With regard to non-tariff trade barriers, there would be included in the draft agreement provisions, uniformly applicable to the trade of all participants, giving effect to the objectives as to non-tariff trade barriers which are set forth in Chapter III of the “Proposals for Expansion of World Trade and Employment” (e.g., elimination of exchange controls, regulation of subsidies, abolition of quotas, et cetera).
- D.
- These discussions would also afford opportunity for consultation among the countries participating in the meeting regarding all other elements in the Proposals (i.e. questions of employment, policy regarding “surplus” commodities, cartel policy, and an international trade organization).
- E.
- The tentative agreement among the countries participating in the preliminary meeting (excluding the tariff schedules) would be subject to change at the general international conference, in the light of the considerations advanced by other countries.
- F.
- The general conference would also consider the questions of adherence to the draft agreement reached at the preliminary meeting and the treatment to be accorded by countries which accept the agreement to the trade of those which do not accept it and of any countries not invited to participate in the general conference. The drafting countries, i.e. those participating in the preliminary meeting, should propose at the conference that non-drafting countries be considered [Page 1348] as provisionally adhering to the agreement upon acceptance of a) the nontariff provisions and b) a commitment to undertake bilateral tariff negotiations with the other countries adhering to the agreement. Countries considered as adhering provisionally before they have completed such tariff negotiations should be required to give adequate tariff concessions in return for benefits which they receive as a result of other tariff negotiations already concluded. The drafting countries should also propose that, subject to exceptions for particular countries recommended by the proposed International Trade Organization, the benefits of the agreement should, after a reasonable period of time, be withheld from the trade of those countries which failed to adhere to it, and that the tariff concessions should similarly be withheld from the trade of countries which, having adhered, failed to negotiate tariff reductions judged by the International Trade Organization to be in conformity with the spirit of the agreement. Drafting countries and provisionally adhering countries should retain full liberty of action to determine whether to extend most-favored-nation treatment to the trade of countries not invited to participate in the conference and not immediately eligible to adhere to the convention. Decision in such cases would presumably be influenced by the adequacy of arrangements made by the non-adhering countries in liberalizing their trade more or less pari passu with the action taken by adhering countries. Findings and reports of the proposed International Trade Organization regarding the trade and commercial policies of non-adhering countries might assist adhering countries in reaching such decisions.
- G.
- Upon the close of the conference the agreement would be brought into force among the drafting countries and such other countries as would join, in accordance with their constitutional procedures.
Very truly yours,
- Neither printed.↩