Office of the Historian

811.235/6–1154

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Holland)1

official use only
[Washington,] June 11, 1954.

Subject:

  • Dominican Views on U.S. Sugar Legislation
  • Participants: Manuel de Moya, Dominican Ambassador
  • Dr. Jesús María Troncoso S., Dominican Minister without Portfolio
  • ARA—Mr. Holland
  • MID—Mr. Warner

Ambassador de Moya and Dr. Troncoso called on Assistant Secretary Holland by appointment to present a note2 setting forth in general terms Dominican aspirations with respect to the United States sugar market. These aspirations are, briefly, to secure a larger share in that market through an increase in the comparatively small sugar quota now assigned to the Dominican Republic.

Dr. Troncoso explained that this is a long-range goal and that the Dominican Republic realizes that hearings on the present bill to amend the Sugar Act3 are not likely to produce such a change in favor of the Dominican Republic. Dr. Troncoso expressed the hope, in fact, that the Dominican Republic’s present quota would not be adversely affected by any amendments to the Act. The Dominican position is that they hope to hold their present quota unchanged for now but with the hope of increasing it eventually. They feel that an increase in their quota would be only just and fair since the Dominican Republic continues to purchase the greatest share of its imports from the U.S. while the U.S. takes only a very small percentage of Dominican exports of its principal product, sugar.

Mr. Holland pointed out that the Department of State is very interested in the Dominican views on sugar problems and suggested that it would be useful to discuss them in greater detail with the Department’s sugar experts. It was suggested accordingly that Dr. Troncoso meet with Mr. Cale, ARA: AR, next week4 for that purpose. Dr. Troncoso thanked Mr. Holland for the suggestion, indicating he would be happy to follow it. He and Ambassador de Moya departed shortly thereafter after exchanging the customary amenities with Mr. Holland.

  1. Drafted by Norman E. Warner of the Office of Middle American Affairs.↩
  2. Dominican Embassy note, dated June 9, 1954, not printed (811.235/6–954).↩
  3. Reference is to the Sugar Act of 1948 (public Law 388), approved Aug. 8, 1947; for text, see 61 Stat. 922.↩
  4. No memorandum of conversation between Dr. Troncoso and Mr. Cale fitting the description here was found in Department of State files.↩