611.5231/954
Memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Western European Affairs (Hickerson)
Mr. Sayre asked the Spanish Ambassador to come in to see him this afternoon. He asked the Ambassador if he had any news or any late instructions from Madrid respecting our trade agreement negotiations; [Page 702] he pointed out that we have for some time been ready to sit down with the Spanish representatives and go forward with the negotiations. Señor Calderón said that he was still waiting for instructions from Madrid; that he was somewhat unhappy because of the delay and that he welcomed Mr. Sayre’s inquiry because it would enable him to cable his Government urging them to expedite the issuance of his instructions. The Ambassador said that he presumed that the delay had been due to the impasse in the commercial negotiations between France and Spain; he went on to say that he understood that the French Government was virtually holding a gun at Spain and demanding that Spain buy from France as much as she sold to France and that this would be a very serious matter for his country since France is one of the few countries with which Spain has a favorable balance of trade. He reiterated that he would cable Madrid at once and stress the fact that we were anxious to go forward as soon as possible.
Mr. Sayre told the Ambassador that we plan to promulgate our trade agreement with Belgium on April 1 and that simultaneously it would be necessary to promulgate a list of countries which do not extend most favored nation treatment to the United States. He added that Spain is of course one of those countries and that Spain’s name must inevitably appear on the list. He went on to say that because of the fact that we are in negotiation with Spain, we propose to extend to Spanish products the benefits of the reductions contained in the Belgian agreement for a period of six months. He added that naturally we expect to reach an agreement by that time and that we are confident that the agreement will make possible a continuation of the reductions to Belgium as well as those to other countries.
The Ambassador said that he was sorry that it seemed to be necessary to publish a list of any countries which discriminate against our trade. He said that as we knew there would be differences of opinions about whether nations were actually discriminating and that even when a country was discriminating such action was usually made necessary because of pressure from some other country. He said he did not question the wisdom of the policy but that he hoped very much that some means of putting the policy in effect could be found without labelling any countries as guilty of discrimination. (Señor Calderón prefaced these remarks by a statement that he wished he were not the Ambassador of Spain in order that he might speak in a frank and friendly manner on the subject and Mr. Sayre invited him by all means to divest himself for the moment of his rank as Ambassador). The conversation was friendly and cordial.