Editorial Note
The Trade Agreements Act of 1951 as approved by President Truman on June 16 (Public Law 82–50) provided that:
“as soon as practicable, the President shall take such action as is necessary to suspend, withdraw or prevent the application of any reduction in any rate of duty, or binding of any existing customs or excise treatment, or other concession contained in trade agreement … to imports from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and to imports from any nation or area dominated or controlled by the foreign government or foreign organization controlling the world communist movement.”
Acting through the interdepartmental Trade Agreements Committee, the United States Government undertook a course of action aimed at termination of obligations existing between the United States and Czechoslovakia under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The Department of State announced on July 31 that the United States had requested that the item “Termination of Obligations between the United States and Czechoslovakia” be placed [Page 1417] on the agenda of the sixth session of the Contracting Parties to GATT, convening in Geneva on September 17. In a statement to the GATT Contracting Parties, the United States pointed out that when GATT obligations were framed in 1947, it had been assumed that the political relations of the countries concerned would be such that it would be in their mutual interests to promote the movement of goods, money, and people between them. It had become apparent that the assumption was no longer valid as between the United States and Czechoslovakia. The statement went on to outline the ways in which relations had been progressively impaired by manifestations of Czechoslovak ill-will toward the United States. The impairment of relations had been aggravated by the progressive integration of Czechoslovakia’s economy into the Soviet bloc, and there was no longer room to doubt that Czechoslovakia’s commitment to the United States was subordinated in the carrying out of its undertakings in the Soviet bloc. For text of the statement, see Department of State Bulletin, August 20, 1951, page 290.
On September 27 the GATT Contracting Parties voted 24 to 1 (with 4 abstentions) concurring in the American decision with regard to Czechoslovakia. President Truman thereupon notified the Department of Treasury on October 2 that all concessions with regard to imports from Czechoslovakia were suspended as of November 1. On October 25 the Czechoslovak Government announced its intention to increase tariffs on American goods on or after November 1.
For text of the Department of State statement to the press announcing and briefly explaining the President’s action, see Department of State Bulletin, October 15, 1951, page 621; see also ibid., November 19, 1951, page 830. Documentation on actions leading to the suspension of United States-Czechoslovak obligations under GATT is in file 394.41.