File No. 611.3231/190.
The American Ambassador to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Petropolis, January 21, 1911.
Mr. Minister: I have had the satisfaction of communicating to my Government the substance of the Executive decree No. 8520, of the 12th instant, which continues in force during the calendar year [Page 31] 1911 the tariff reduction of 20 per cent accorded certain articles of American production upon their importation into Brazil, with the exception of American flour, as to which, in view of the demonstrated insufficiency of that percentage of reduction to place our flour on a competitive basis with other foreign flour in the Brazilian market, and of course mindful at the same time of the magnitude of the importation into the United States of Brazilian products practically all free from duty, your excellency’s Government, actuated by a spirit of generous reciprocity, found it proper to increase the former reduction to 30 per cent off the regular duty.
It affords me very great pleasure under the circumstances, and in compliance with a telegraphic instruction which I have just received from Washington, to express to your excellency in the name of the Government of the United States its high appreciation of the further tariff reduction on American flour and the continuation for the other American products of last year’s preferential tariff treatment.
Be pleased [etc.],