711.672/335
The Secretary of Commerce (Hoover) to the Secretary of State21
Dear Mr. Secretary: I want to call your attention to the importance, from the viewpoint of American commerce, of the prompt ratification of the treaty with Turkey, concluded at Lausanne on August 6, 1923. Whatever differences of opinion there may have been with regard to the desirability of the major changes of a noncommercial character involved in the treaty, it appears that the broad alterations in the political and legal relations and powers of the Turkish Government are now accomplished facts, the original treaty of July 24, 1923, between the Allied Powers and Turkey having been ratified by the governments of the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan, Rumania, and Greece, and actually brought into operation.
Since the treaty between Turkey and the United States consists essentially of an exchange of assurances of most-favored-nation treatment, there are involved no specific new obligations upon the United States, but until a treaty with Turkey is ratified by the United States, the benefits of any concessions or privileges established by Turkey in [Page 728] favor of any of the treaty countries under the new régime may be denied to the United States and its nationals. In fact, a tariff discrimination has already been established, through an order issued by the Angora Government to its customs officials on October 9, putting into effect as from August 6 the provisions of the Lausanne Commercial Convention granting reduced import duties on certain products from the treaty countries. The benefits of these concessions are not being extended to similar products from the United States.
I inclose copy of a report on the situation received from Trade Commissioner Gillespie at Constantinople,22 and would call your particular attention to the statement that he has investigated and found correct the complaints, brought to his attention by a local merchant who had endeavored to import leather from the United States, that “because the United States has not ratified the treaty negotiated with Turkey at Lausanne on August 23 [6], 1923, the importation of American leather into Turkey at the present time is virtually prohibited, in view of the discriminatory attitude of the Turkish Government.” A note of protest against this situation presented to the Turkish Government has thus far received no reply.
The particular difficulty in the case of leather has also been brought to our attention through recent inquiries from several prominent American leather exporters, whether they could possibly obtain a certificate of origin through the Turkish consul at London for transshipment of their merchandise to Turkey. While a certificate of British origin naturally can not be obtained on American goods, the fact that an extreme alternative of this sort is being considered is significant of the difficulty in which that trade finds itself. American exporters of wheat flour and of edible oils, trades formerly of considerable volume, have for some time been complaining of the tariff treatment of their products in Turkey, but I understand that it has not been possible to approach the Turkish Government in these matters until there had been recognition in the form of a treaty.
Should the disposition of this treaty be postponed until the next session of Congress, a year hence, increasing handicaps may be imposed on American commerce with Turkey through the establishment of preferential duties or other privileges, which it would be later more difficult to remove than now to anticipate through a treaty assuring the United States automatically of most-favored-nation treatment.
There is involved in this situation not only the trade with Turkey, but with all the areas surrounding the Black Sea, for one of the important provisions embodied in the original treaty, which is extended [Page 729] freely and without obligation to the United States by our treaty, is the assurance to ships of treaty nations of the freedom of the straits, through which vessels for Black Sea ports must pass. The interests of our shipping as well as our trade, therefore, make desirable the early ratification of the treaty with Turkey in the form essentially as concluded.
Yours faithfully,