313. Letter From President Eisenhower to President Ruiz Cortines1

Dear Mr. President: Since writing you briefly on March seventh,2 I have given much additional thought to the concern you expressed in your courteous letter of February seventeenth.3 In that communication you indicated that higher tariffs would cause serious harm to the economy of Mexico through the creation of new import barriers.

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Developments looking toward a solution of this vexing problem have been the subject of frequent consultations between representatives of our two Governments and I believe that the steps which have been taken provide ample evidence that the views of those countries most concerned have been fully and sympathetically considered.

Because of the long-standing friendship between our two countries, so frequently renewed and strengthened not only on such occasions as you and I have enjoyed at the inauguration of the Falcon Dam, at White Sulphur Springs, and at Panama,4 but also through the many daily associations between our two peoples, I have felt that I wanted to write you again at this time to tell you personally how the matter stands at the present time.

On April twenty-fourth the United States Tariff Commission reported its finding that domestic lead and zinc producers are experiencing serious injury as a result of imports of these products. One group of Commissioners recommended maximum increases in United States tariffs with quantitative limitations; the other Commissioners recommended a return to the statutory rates of duty provided in the Tariff Act of 1930, without quantitative limitations.

Partly because of my desire to avoid taking any measure which would be detrimental to the economies of Mexico and other friendly countries, I have suspended action on the recommendations of the Tariff Commission and have expressed to the Congress my hope that it will expedite its consideration of the Minerals Stabilization Plan which has been submitted by the Secretary of the Interior to the Congress. I am hopeful that the Plan will be approved by the Congress in a form which will meet the immediate needs of the mining industry in my country and also lay the basis for continuing trade in lead and zinc between our two countries.

While it is, I am sorry to say, still too early for me to give you any definite news about the eventual outcome of these particular developments, I want you to know that the frank expression of your views is always greatly valued. My own efforts to resolve the problem, now and in the past, have been motivated by a desire to give substance to a deep conviction: that the circumstances which fortunately link our two nations so closely together require us in all our undertakings to maintain a sincere concern for the avoidance of any ill effects which our independent actions may sometimes tend to bring upon our separate interests. In expressing appreciation for your past generous public recognition of my Government’s understanding of and friendship for [Page 829] its Western Hemisphere neighbors, I venture to hope that my present efforts with regard to lead and zinc will also demonstrate the high esteem in which I continue to hold our personal and official relationship.

Accept, Mr. President, my cordial good wishes for your continued personal well-being, and for the welfare of the Mexican people.

Sincerely,

Your friend

Dwight D. Eisenhower5
  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Staff Secretary’s Records, International Series. No drafting information is given on the source text.
  2. See footnote 4, Document 311.
  3. Document 311.
  4. Documentation on the meeting among Eisenhower, Ruiz Cortines, and Canadian Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, March 26–28, 1956, is printed in Foreign Relations, 1955–1957, vol. VI, pp. 708 ff. For documentation on the meeting of the Presidents of the American Republics at Panama, July 21–22, 1956, see ibid., pp. 437 ff.
  5. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.