851.4061 Motion Pictures/71: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in France (Armour)
154. Your 206, May 11, noon. Section 303 of Tariff Act states specifically that “whenever any country (hiatus) person, partnership, association, cartel or corporation shall pay or bestow, directly or indirectly, any bounty or grant upon the manufacture or production or export of any article or merchandise manufactured or produced in such country,” there shall be levied in the case of importation of any such article into the United States “an additional duty equal to the net amount of such bounty or grant, however the same be paid or bestowed.”
Treasury Department cannot give an official ruling or interpretation of its attitude prior to actual occurrence of a case of this kind, but Customs official states informally and unofficially that provisions of Section 303 are unequivocal, that Treasury is constantly on the alert for just such a case as the New York Times now reports to be under consideration by the French Government, and that in the event of such a proposal being adopted there would probably be no alternative for Treasury Department but to impose countervailing duties on all French films actually exported to the United States.
While it is conceivable, as you suggest, that an alleviation of taxes might escape the application of Section 303, yet the attitude of the Treasury is such as to suggest that it might regard this case as coming within the provisions thereof. It would appear desirable, therefore, purely as a precaution against eventual misunderstanding, that the Commercial Attaché should mention Section 303 and its possible consequences in the course of his forthcoming conversations with the Undersecretary for Fine Arts.