710.J/3–749
The Secretary of State to the Diplomatic Missions in the American Republics
Sirs: At the time of signature of the Economic Agreement of Bogotá at the Ninth International Conference of American States,1 [Page 425] a number of the governments, including the United States, entered reservations.2 Due to conditions in Bogotá at that time resulting in pressure to terminate the Conference as quickly as possible, there was no opportunity for discussions between various delegations which might have made it possible to eliminate some, if not all, of the reservations. Those reservations have subsequently proved to be an important obstacle to obtaining ratification of the Agreement (only Costa Rica has ratified), and as far as the United States is concerned it is not the intention of the Department to submit the Agreement to the Senate unless and until the problem of the reservations has been satisfactorily settled.
In June 1948 the Department transmitted to the missions in the other American republics a report on the economic discussions at the Bogotá Conference,3 which set forth in some detail the background of the reservations entered by various governments.
Subsequently, on June 25, the United States Representative on the Inter-American Economic and Social Council presented a statement to the Council indicating the unlikelihood of ratification or entry into force of the Economic Agreement unless the problem of the reservations were solved, and proposing that the Council undertake to find a solution which could be recommended to the governments. A special committee of the Council was appointed to act upon the United States proposal, a general procedure for handling the problem was agreed upon, the governments which had entered reservations were requested to express their views as to their possible withdrawal, discussions in the special committee proceeded intermittently over several months, and there has now emerged from the committee and been approved by the Council for transmission to the governments, a Draft of Additional Protocol3 to the Economic Agreement of Bogotá.
This Draft Protocol, copies of which in English and Spanish together with a copy of the covering report of the special committee3 are enclosed, is to be studied by all of the American governments, whether or not they entered reservations to the Economic Agreement, and their comments on the draft are to be submitted to the Inter-American Economic and Social Council which, through the special committee, will then proceed with whatever redrafting of the proposed Additional Protocol may be necessary in the light of those comments. It is hoped that it will have been possible at that stage to have reached general agreement on a text which the governments would be prepared to sign at the time of the Inter-American Economic Conference, or alternatively by the representatives of the governments on the Economic [Page 426] and Social Council who would have been provided with full powers for the purpose.
Turning to the substance of the proposed Additional Protocol, the Preamble and Chapter I and Chapter III would appear to be self-explanatory. The various articles under Chapter II are to be read in the light of the articles of the Economic Agreement to which they refer, and in the light of the reservations which they would replace. It will be seen that in place of the reservations, the Additional Protocol would in reality consist of a series of interpretative notes to which all signatories would agree, somewhat similar in arrangement to the interpretative notes appended to the Charter for an International Trade Organization signed at Habana.4
It will be noted also, from the report accompanying the Draft Protocol, that there are certain governments which have failed to inform the Inter-American Economic and Social Council whether they are prepared to withdraw their reservations unconditionally (i.e. without substituting therefor an article in the Protocol), or whether they would be willing to withdraw their reservations only if there were substituted corresponding articles in the Protocol, and if the latter, the terms of such articles. Although it was recognized in the Inter-American Economic and Social Council that work on the Protocol could not be completed without knowing the views of those governments, it was felt desirable to transmit the Draft even in its present incomplete form without waiting any longer to hear from additional governments, and in fact hoping by this to induce such governments to express their views.
The missions will further note from the report accompanying the Draft Protocol, that the latter does not purport at this stage to reflect the official views of the governments, but only the personal views of their representatives on the Inter-American Economic and Social Council.
The Draft Protocol and covering report were approved for transmission to the governments at a meeting of the Economic and Social Council on February 14. After allowing a reasonable time for the individual representatives on the Council to send the documents to their governments, together with any personal comments which they may add, it is requested that the appropriate officer at each mission find a convenient early opportunity to discuss this matter with either the Foreign Minister or with a ranking official under him, along the following general lines:
After reviewing the importance which the United States Government attaches to strengthening the machinery for effective inter-American economic cooperation, reference might be made to the circumstances affecting the Economic Agreement of Bogotá and the [Page 427] reservations to it, which are summarized in the first three paragraphs of this instruction, and the desire of the United States in common with the other American governments to find a solution to the reservations problem so as to make possible the eventual ratification and entry into force of the Agreement.
It is the hope of the United States through the cooperation of all the governments, both by the attitude adopted toward the problem of the reservations and by promptly transmitting instructions to their representatives on the Inter-American Economic and Social Council, that it may soon be possible for the Council to produce a final draft of protocol acceptable to all of the American nations, ready for signature at the Buenos Aires Economic Conference (now to be held sometime in the second half of 1949) or in Washington at an earlier date by the representatives on the Council provided with full powers for the purpose (precedents for this—the signature of the Inter-American Bank Convention and the Inter-American Coffee Agreement5). It may be added as the opinion of the United States Government that if before the Buenos Aires Conference all the American governments have not reached substantial understanding on the Protocol as a substitute for all reservations to the Economic Agreement, it would be unwise to hold the Conference—if the American governments were to reveal before the world that they had been unable to reach agreement on this problem affecting the basic inter-American economic instrument, the effects would be very serious. It is therefore essential that a full agreement be reached, through the representatives of each government oh the Inter-American Economic and Social Council, prior to the Conference, so as not to leave to the usual haste and confusion of such a meeting the attempt to reach an agreement in substance which could not be reached previously. (These last statements have particular reference to one or two governments which have expressed the view that the settlement of the reservations problem could be left for the Conference itself).
In view of the foregoing, it is the hope of the United States that the other governments will give prompt and sympathetic consideration to this problem and send instructions at an early date to their representatives on the Economic and Social Council.
This instruction does not attempt to provide a basis upon which the missions might discuss the substance of the problems raised by the reservations, a possible solution of which is presented in the articles in Chapter II of the Draft Protocol. Discussion of some of these points has required many meetings in Washington and it would appear neither practicable nor desirable to ask the individual missions to undertake these discussions.
It will be appreciated if the missions will report the results of any conversations held in response to this instruction.
Very truly yours,
Assistant Secretary [of State for Economic Affairs]