411.656/7–1451
The Italian Embassy to the Department of State
No. 8021
The Italian Embassy presents its compliments to the Department of State and has the honor to call its attention to the following:
It is public knowledge that the House of Representatives has voted, in its session of July 20, an amendment to Section 104 of the Defense Production Act of 1951,1 a measure which prohibits the importation of cheeses into the United States for a period ending June 30, 1953.
The adoption of such an amendment would endanger severely one of Italy’s oldest and most traditional currents of exports to the United States, which provides work for entire regions of Italy and gives a substantial irreplaceable contribution to the balance of payments which shows a wide gap against Italy. (Italy exports less than one-fourth of what she imports from the United States.)
The suspension of the importation of cheeses to this country is furthermore in contrast with the action undertaken by the Government of the United States to assist in the economic recovery of the Nations under ECA aid, recovery that is indispensable to enable these nations to participate efficiently in the common defense efforts.
It is pointed out also that while the exportation of Italian cheeses to the United States constitutes a vital factor for the Italian economy, on the other hand, its incidence on the American production is irrelevant not only in respect to the entity of the exported product, but because of the types of cheeses produced by Italy, which are not in competition with those produced in the United States.
Moreover, the said amendment would render void the provisions contained in Art. 11 of the GATT and would nullify the United States tariff reductions agreed upon in the recent negotiations and for which Italy granted similar tariff reductions in favor of American products.
In view of the foregoing, the Italian Embassy would deeply appreciate it if the Department of State would give its particular attention to this matter, in order to avoid the unfavorable repercussions which the adoption of such a measure would cause in the trade relations between Italy and the United States.
The Italian Embassy expresses its thanks to the Department of State for its kind consideration and assistance.
- The act was cited as the “Defense Production Act Amendments of 1951”.↩