Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, General; the United Nations, Volume I, Part 2

560.AL/11–848

The Director of the Office of International Trade Policy (Brown) to the Counselor of Embassy for Economic Affairs in Sweden (Peterson)

restricted
informal—official business

Washington, December 2, 1948.

Dear Pete: You requested in your letter of November 8 information concerning Congressional action on the ITO Charter.¹ The Department is now developing its legislative program and the ITO Charter is the economic item having highest priority. There seems to be little doubt but that the Charter will be presented fairly early during the forthcoming session. It is significant to note that the Democratic party platform stated specifically, “We strongly indorse our country’s adherence to the International Trade Organization.”²

We are now, as you might expect, to some extent entangled in the political process, for a decision on how and when the Charter should be submitted depends in part on the organization of the Congress. We hope to take full advantage of the White House-Congressional leadership contacts, and we will wish to be guided by these political judgments, particularly with respect to the timing of presentation.

For your own information, it now appears that we shall send the Charter up in the form of a joint resolution, although a decision has not been made as to whether it should be handled by the Foreign Affairs and Foreign Relations Committees or the Ways and Means and Finance Committees. There are questions of this character, the answers to which depend substantially upon political judgments which we hope will emerge from the White House and Congressional leaders. You may certainly reaffirm to the Swedes that we propose to make every effort to obtain Congressional approval as quickly as possible.

I hope that you will be able to use this somewhat inconclusive information with good effect insofar as Swedish plans for ratification of the Charter are concerned.

With all good wishes,

Sincerely yours,

Winthrop G. Brown

1. In his letter of November 8, 1948, not printed, Mr. Peterson noted that Swedish ratification was dependent on American plans, because the Swedes felt that “since ITO is fundamentally an American project, carried forward with great vigor by stimulation from the American side, small countries like Sweden … would be slow in ratifying the Charter until they knew what the United States was going to do regarding ratification.” (560.AL/11–848)
2. On Election Day, November 2, 1948, the Democratic Party candidate for the presidency, President Harry S. Truman, was elected; and a Democratic Party majority was elected to the two Houses of Congress.