611.4731/112: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Sydney (Caldwell)
Your January 8 noon. Please communicate in substance the following to the Prime Minister:
“The Government of the United States has been greatly interested in the proposals contained in your communication dated June 4, 1934,3 and has given careful consideration to their details in an effort to determine whether the proposals could fit into the program of negotiations as begun by the United States.
“Far from diverting trade from one country to another, this program has as its chief purpose the opening up of world trade by lessening generally the obstacles to trade. In this way it is hoped to increase the flow of goods both ways between the United States and other countries. It would leave trade balances to be effected in the natural roundabout fashion as in the past. It was planned for the United States to begin its program of negotiations with countries whose products were not so directly competitive with its own, and under this plan several agreements are in progress, with some in their final stages. The conclusion of these agreements is predicated upon [Page 10] the assumption that the tariff reductions made by the United States will be extended to all countries which do not discriminate against it. While the first set of agreements will not cover a large number of products in which Australia is interested, as the program progresses it will probably be found that certain Australian products, by reason of this generalization, will be placed in a more favorable position. It would follow that the total of exports from Australia to the United States would show an increase. It is the feeling of the United States Government that by thus without compensation (other than reciprocal most favored nation treatment) opening up its markets for the less competitive products of some countries, there might later on be found a better basis for negotiating with them respecting the more competitive products.
[“] In the meantime it is hoped that the Australian Government will have a full appreciation of the broad economic principles and policies, contained in the Montevideo resolutions4 to restore international trade, which underlie and are basic to this Government’s program, and will cooperate with this government in its effort to play its part in bringing about a progressive removal of trade barriers throughout the world. Such program if carried out simultaneously by the important nations will very much increase both Australian trade and ours.
“You may rest assured that your proposals will have the continued interest of the United States Government, which, as soon as domestic agricultural conditions permit, will be glad to re-examine them in the light of the new conditions.”
- For summary, see unnumbered telegram of June 5, 1934, 4 p.m. from the Consul General at Sydney, ibid., p. 841.↩
- For correspondence concerning the Seventh International Conference of American States, held at Montevideo, December 3–26, 1933, see Foreign Relations, 1933, vol. iv, pp. 1 ff.↩