Editorial Note
The Interdepartmental Trade Agreements Committee on December 17 issued formal notice of intention to negotiate with Colombia for reciprocal reduction of tariff and other trade barriers and for accession of that country to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade concluded by the United States and 22 other countries at Annecy, France on October 30, 1947. Colombia was to join with 11 other countries in the negotiations scheduled to begin at Geneva on April 11, 1949. (Department of State Bulletin, December 26, 1948, page 807.)
An agreement terminating the reciprocal trade agreement of September 13, 1935, was effected by exchange of notes signed at Washington on October 12, 1949, and it entered into force on that date (TIAS 2207, or 2 UST(1) 569). The note by the Secretary of State to the Colombian Ambassador (Zuleta Angel) referred to the recent tariff negotiations conducted at Annecy and unsuccessful efforts of the United States and Colombia to conclude negotiations directed to the exchange of mutually satisfactory tariff concessions and envisaging the accession of Colombia to the General Agreement. The United States and Colombian delegations to the Conference had agreed to recommend termination of the 1935 Trade Agreement. The agreement of October 12, 1949 provided for termination on December 1, 1949; [Page 464] the commercial relations of the two countries were to be subject to the provisions of the Treaty of Peace, Amity, Navigation and Commerce between the United States and the Republic of New Granada, signed at Bogotá, December 12, 1846 (TS 54, or 9 Stat. 881). In despatch 653, October 21, 1949, not printed, Ambassador Beaulac reported as follows: “The Embassy has calculated that the termination of the Trade Agreement would provide, with the presently restricted trade situation, a maximum added revenue of 5,000,000 pesos per year under the existing basic tariff schedule. This would represent an increase of about 10 percent in import duty revenue and an increase of about 1.3 percent in the current collection rate of total national revenue” (611.2131/10–2149).