611.0031 Executive Committee/3
The Secretary of State to President Roosevelt
My Dear Mr. President: I understand that you are giving thought to the idea of assigning to the Department of Agriculture the duty of regulating imports of wines and spirits during the period prior to the enactment of permanent legislation. I believe it is also your further idea that admission to the American market during this period should be exchanged for opportunities for American products in foreign markets, particularly for American agricultural products. As you know, I am in thorough accord with this policy.
The Department of State is of course continually engaged in the conduct of commercial relations with the rest of the world and is the treaty-negotiating agency. If it is to carry out its duties effectively, it must be in a position to be able to deal with all elements in the import and export trade. I therefore respectfully suggest in order to avoid possible misunderstanding and the crossing of wires that the Department of Agriculture be informed that the negotiations dealing with entry of wines and spirits will, like all other international trade questions, be executed through this Department. I have drafted a suggested letter11 for this purpose.
May I take this occasion to follow up one of the thoughts expressed in the memorandum which I have already forwarded to you dealing with the question of policy in this field of wines and spirits?11 When permanent legislation is passed dealing with the whole subject, would [Page 927] it not be advisable to have first a tariff scheme that will make bargaining possible and second, to have the power reserved to the Executive to make use of other means of regulation of the import trade? When this is done, may I suggest that in the law this reserved power be assigned to you directly rather than to the Department of Agriculture? My thought is that as our whole idea for the coordination of the commercial policy work of this Government is developed and applied, the conduct of negotiations in this field will be one branch of the work of the chairman of the interdepartmental Executive Committee.
I hope that shortly we shall be able to carry out the appointment to the Department which has already met with your approval. The individual in question, if he accepts, might well act as Chairman of this interdepartmental Executive Committee. However, as there should be no delay in setting up the contemplated machinery, Mr. Phillips could, if you approve, undertake the duties as temporary Chairman.
I enclose a draft of a circular letter12 which you might care to use in connection with a communication to the heads of departments and Government organizations on this subject.
It would be of great help to me to know whether this general idea meets with your approval.
Faithfully yours,