611.943 Gloves/18
The Department of State to the Japanese Embassy33
Wool-Knit Gloves
The suggestions presented to the Department today regarding details of the proposed agreement have been given careful consideration. It would be impossible for the President to withhold action on the report of the Tariff Commission if voluntary restriction assumed by Japanese exporters should offer less adequate safeguards to the American industry than the arrangement set forth in the Department’s statement of February 15.
This Government made the most liberal offer it could possibly make with respect to the period between March 1, 1936 and January 1, 1937. To shift to shipments from Japan during this period as a substitute for arrivals in the United States would have the effect of increasing considerably and to an indeterminate amount the total volume of imports of wool-knit gloves into the United States during this year. It is essential that arrivals in the United States of all wool-knit gloves manufactured in Japan for the period March 1, 1936 to January 1, 1937 shall be limited to 200,000 dozen pairs provided that arrivals of such gloves between January 1 and March 1, 1936 shall not exceed 150,000 dozen pairs, any excess over 150,000 dozen pairs during this two-month period to be subtracted from the limit of 200,000 dozen pairs during the ten months following.
It is essential also that the agreement cover at least three years and that it should definitely limit arrivals in the United States of all wool-knit gloves and mittens manufactured in Japan to 225,000 dozen pairs for each of the calendar years 1937 and 1938, and that definite announcement of this agreement and its terms should be made if the President is to be justified in refraining from the action recommended in the report of the Tariff Commission.
Should the circumstances determining the position of the American industry develop subsequently in such a way as to warrant increased importation consistently with the welfare of the American industry, and should the Japanese Government then wish to propose in the light of this situation that the voluntary limitation on arrivals in the United States for the subsequent calendar year be made more liberal, this Government would, of course, give consideration to any such proposals.
- Handed to the Third Secretary of the Japanese Embassy by Mr. Veatch, February 18.↩