611.5231/374a
The Secretary of State to the Spanish Ambassador (Riaño)
Excellency: With reference to our recent conversations regarding the commercial relationship between the United States and Spain, I have the honor to express to you the hope that, pending the conclusion of a new treaty of commerce between the two Governments, it will be agreeable to the Government of Spain as it is to the Government of the United States to maintain the commercial relations between the United States and Spain on a basis of unconditional most-favored-nation treatment.
By such an arrangement it would be understood that no conditions, prohibitions or restrictions would be imposed by either country on the importation of any article, produced or manufactured in the territories of the other than are or shall be imposed on the importation of any like article, produced or manufactured in any other foreign country, and that with respect to classification, valuation, import duties and other similar charges, the products of each country would be admitted to importation into the territories of the [Page 692] other on terms no less favorable than those which are or may be applicable to the similar products of any other country.
Similarly, no conditions, prohibitions or restrictions and no higher or other duties or charges would be imposed by either country on exportations to the territories of the other than are imposed on the like articles exported to any other country.
It would be understood, however, that this undertaking regarding imports and exports would not restrict the right of either country to impose on such terms as it might see fit prohibitions or restrictions of a sanitary character designed to protect human, animal, or plant life, or regulations for the enforcement of police or revenue laws; nor would it extend to the treatment which is accorded by the United States to the commerce of Cuba or to the commerce between the United States and any of its dependencies or the Panama Canal Zone under existing or future laws or among the dependencies of the United States; nor to any special treatment which Spain has conceded or may concede to the products of Portugal or to those originating in and proceeding from the Spanish Zone of Morocco, or to the commerce of Spain with any of its dependencies.
It would be satisfactory to the United States to have the arrangement become operative on the fifth day of May, 1925, the date of the expiration of the existing arrangement, and continue in force thereafter until thirty days after notice of its termination shall have been given by either country to the other.
Accept [etc.]