611.60F31/6–145
The Acting Secretary of State to the Czechoslovak Ambassador (Hurban)
Excellency: I have the honor to refer to the request for information made orally on June 1, 1945 by Mr. Emanuel Jan Hajný, Commercial Counselor, and Dr. Oldrich Chÿle, First Secretary, concerning the legal basis for the termination of the Trade Agreement between the Czechoslovak Republic and the United States of America.
In the Proclamation of the President, dated March 23, 1939, it was stated that the termination of the operation of the Agreement in the United States was necessary because of the impossibility of performance of the obligations of the Agreement on the part of the Czechoslovak Republic. The American Minister to Praha had reported on March 17, 1939, that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was closed and that there was at that time in Praha no one with whom he could communicate officially on matters affecting the two Governments. It was accordingly not possible, at the time that it was necessary that [Page 540] decisive action be taken, to instruct the American Minister to bring to the notice of the Minister of Foreign Affairs the Proclamation of the President of the United States terminating the operation of the Agreement in the United States. I enclose copies of Executive Agreement Series No. 147, which contains the above-mentioned Proclamation of the President87 and of the despatch of the American Minister from Praha,88 to which I have referred.
If the bill (H.R. 3240), now pending in the United States Congress is enacted, it will be impossible for the President again to proclaim and make effective the reduced rates of duty provided in the Trade Agreement. I attach for your information copies of H.R. 324089 and of the Report of the Ways and Means Committee on this bill.90
In these circumstances it would seem to be appropriate, if you agree, for us to exchange notes recognizing that the Trade Agreement is no longer in effect on either side, and establishing as a temporary measure, in its place, a regime of general most-favored-nation treatment in commercial matters, without specific schedules of tariff rates on either side. Such an exchange might furnish a satisfactory temporary basis for the commercial relations of our two countries, until such time as we are able to negotiate either a permanent treaty of Friendship and Commerce or a new Trade Agreement, or both. If this method of dealing with the problem seems appropriate to you, we shall be glad to develop in the near future a specific draft of such an exchange of notes and to discuss it with you at your convenience.
Accept [etc.]
- See footnote 83, p. 537.↩
- Telegram 51, March 17, 1939, 11 p.m. from Prague; for text, see Foreign Relations, 1939, vol. i, p. 51.↩
- See footnote 85, p. 538.↩
- House Document No. 594, Foreign Trade Agreements: Report from the House Committee on Ways and Means, 79th Cong., 1st sess., to accompany H.R. 3240 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1945).↩