560.AL/9–1748
The Acting Chairman of the Interdepartmental Committee on Trade Agreements (Willoughby) to the Acting Chairman of the United States Tariff Commission (Edminster)
My Dear Mr. Edminster: This is to confirm the informal request made of the Tariff Commission on July 9, 1948, on behalf of the Trade Agreements Committee, for the following information to be used in the preparations for the tariff negotiations between the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and other countries scheduled to open at Geneva on April 11, 1949:
1. Tabulation on basis of United States import statistical classes of United States imports (including both dutiable and free items) of which any one of the following countries was first, second or third supplier in either 1939 or 1947:
| American Republics | Near and Far East |
| Argentina | Afghanistan |
| Bolivia | Egypt |
| Colombia | Ethiopia |
| Costa Rica | Israel |
| Dominican Republic | Iran |
| Ecuador | Iraq |
| El Salvador | Liberia |
| Guatemala | Philippines |
| Haiti | Saudi-Arabia |
| Honduras | Siam |
| Mexico | Transjordan |
| Nicaragua | Turkey |
| Panama | Yemen |
| Paraguay | |
| Peru | |
| Uruguay | |
| Venezuela |
| Europe | British Commonwealth |
| Austria | Nepal |
| Denmark | |
| Finland | |
| Greece | |
| Iceland | |
| Ireland | |
| Italy | |
| Portugal | |
| Sweden | |
| Switzerland |
2. Assembly by individual countries of the data mentioned in 1 above for the following countries:
- Denmark
- Dominican Republic
- El Salvador
- Finland
- Greece
- Haiti
- Italy
- Nicaragua
- Sweden
- Uruguay
- Colombia
In addition to trade statistics for the countries listed in 2, the information should include relevant data on the tariff, especially the rate in the Tariff Act of 1930, the January 1, 1945 rate, the present rate, and the rates under existing trade agreements.1
The Contracting Parties to the General Agreement, during their Second Session at Geneva, which ended September 14, formerly approved the following timetable for these negotiations:
- 1.
- Notification by the Secretariat of the Contracting Parties, not later than September 18, 1948, of the list of Governments which will participate in the next series of negotiations, i.e., the present Contracting Parties and the other Governments which wish to participate with a view to early accession to the Agreement. This date is subject to extension, however, in exceptional circumstances affecting certain acceding Governments. On the basis of present preliminary information, the countries listed under 2 above are expected to participate in the negotiations with the Contracting Parties. I shall be glad to inform you of any subsequent modifications of this list resulting from the notification by the Secretariat of the Contracting Parties.
- 2.
- Exchange of preliminary request lists between the United States and other Governments desiring to accede not later than October 31, 1948. (A special case is made of the United States because of our statutory procedures.)
- 3.
- Exchange between all participating Governments of definitive request lists including rates of duty not later than January 15, 1949.
- 4.
- Exchange of definitive offer lists, in response to the request lists under 3, at the opening of the conference at Geneva on April 11, 1949.
As you will readily see, the foregoing establishes a very tight timetable. In order for us to transmit our definitive request lists by January 15, it will be necessary to hold the public hearings in December. This means that we shall have to issue the usual public notice very early in November, probably on November 5 if the President approves. Allowing a month for the submission of briefs, this would make it possible to set December 6 as the closing date for filing briefs, and December 13 as the date for opening the public hearings.
Consequently, in order that the Country Committees and the Trade Agreements Committee may be able to prepare the list of items to accompany the public notice, it will be greatly appreciated if the data outlined above can be submitted to the Committee in the very near future, and if possible not later than September 30. In accordance with the suggestion made by members of your staff in informal discussion of this matter, it may be necessary, in order to complete the work by September 30, to exclude detailed data on the duty-free items if total imports in 1939 or 1947 did not exceed $10,000.
Sincerely yours,
- In a letter of September 23, Mr. Willoughby asked Mr. Edminster to add Peru to category 2, since Peru had notified Mr. Wyndham-White, that it intended to participate in the negotiations with the contracting parties to the GATT, with a view to its accession to that agreement. (560.AL/9–1748)↩