611.3531/1422: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Argentina (Armour)
286. Your telegram No. 310, December 23, 4 p.m.
Article III. Agreement by the Argentineans to this Article as proposed by us and to paragraph numbered 1 of the proposed final minutes (as set forth in the Department’s telegram no. 284, December 22, 8 p.m.38) on the understanding that any proposals to depart from the base period specified in the latter would come within the scope of the new Article XII, would be acceptable to us.
Article IV. We must continue to insist upon an absolute commitment to make exchange available for all permitted imports but are willing to accept a most-favored-nation commitment regarding delays. You are therefore authorized to propose to the Argentineans the following modifications of Article IV:
“(a) impose no prohibition or restriction on the transfer of payments for articles the growth, produce or manufacture of the other country or of payments necessary or incidental to the importation of such articles; (b) impose no delay upon the transfer of such payments more onerous than that imposed on the transfer of payments in connection with the importation of any article the growth, produce or manufacture of any third country; and”. The present clause (b) would follow as clause (c).
If the Argentineans object to the term “any article,” you may, if necessary to obtain agreement, change the term to “like articles”. In [Page 283] this event we would desire the inclusion of the following as the first sentence of paragraph numbered 3 of the final minutes:
“With reference to clause (b) of article IV, it was agreed that if the Government of either country finds it necessary to impose delay on payments for imports from the other country, it will endeavor to insure that such delay will not be more burdensome on the trade of the other country than on the trade of any third country.”
You should be sure that it is clear to the Argentine negotiators that the above provision regarding delays means that shipments of any article from the United States would not be subject to any greater delay in providing means of payment than that to which shipments of articles of any kind (or, if the above recession is necessary, shipments of like articles) currently imported from any third country are subject.
Article XI. You are authorized to propose as a second sentence of paragraph number 2 of Article XI the second sentence of the second paragraph of Article VI of the agreement with Switzerland.39 However, with this modification in Article XI, we would desire the inclusion of the following as a second sentence in paragraph numbered 4 of the final minutes:
“It was also agreed that if the Government of either country finds it necessary to impose or substantially alter a quota on a scheduled product, it will in practice, prior to taking such action, afford the other Government adequate opportunity for consultation in regard to the proposed measure.”
- Not printed.↩
- Signed at Washington, January 9, 1936, Executive Agreement Series No. 90, or 49 Stat. 3917; see also Foreign Relations, 1936, Vol. ii, pp. 796 ff.↩