Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, 1945, The British Commonwealth, The Far East, Volume VI

641.003/8–245

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Commercial Policy (Brown)

[Washington,] August 2, 1945.

1. At lunch today Mr. Lee⁴² stated that he understood from discussions with Canadian officials that the United States felt that commitments which the Administration had made during the Hearings on the renewal of the Trade Agreements Act would preclude it from pursuing a straight multilateral approach to tariff reduction. He stated that the Canadians were much dismayed by this development and that, although he was not personally directly involved in the problem, British officials also were very much concerned. He asked whether I could confirm that this was the case and whether it did not represent a very marked change in United States policy from that put forward by us in the 1943 discussions.⁴³

I stated that it was the case. It had been necessary for the Administration to emphasize the selective nature of the approach to reductions in the American tariff which had been adopted in the past and to give assurances that this selectivity would be continued in the future. We felt that we were bound by those assurances in the use of the new authority given us. I explained the narrowness of the margin by which the renewal statute was passed both in the House and in the Senate⁴⁴ and emphasized how unfortunate it would have been had it not been passed. He entirely agreed on this point. I stated that we recognized that this did represent a considerable change from the line of policy which we had been discussing with the British but that this had been required of us by practical political realities which we faced on the Hill. Mr. Lee again expressed his disappointment that this situation should have developed.

2. We had a general discussion on the effect of a change in government in England.⁴⁵ Mr. Lee stated his views on this subject, which were generally similar to those expressed in London Embassy’s telegram no. 7708 of July 31.⁴⁶

42. Frank Lee, British Treasury Delegation.
43. See Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. i, pp. 1099 ff.
44. See footnote 94, p. 45.
45. In the British general elections of July 1945, the Conservative Government had been defeated by the Labor Party, with Clement R. Attlee replacing Winston S. Churchill as Prime Minister.
46. Not printed.