651.113/158: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Straus)
29. Your 44, January 22, 5 p.m. An increase in duty at this time will have a most unfortunate effect here, especially to continue the United States in the general tariff since the general and minimum are no longer to be the same. We have an exportable surplus of rice and efforts have been made in some of the wine negotiations43 to dispose of this surplus abroad. Rice imports from non-French sources are not very large comparatively, but the French market is of considerable importance to American rice interests. An increased duty plus new discrimination against a commodity of such interest at this time coming upon the heels of the widely disseminated difficulties over the apple and pear quota will without doubt be resented here. Please talk this over with the appropriate authorities and see what you can do at least in getting the minimum rate for American rice.
- See section entitled “Increase in Quota for Importation of French Wines and Liquors in Return for Increase by France in Quotas for Certain American Products,” Foreign Relations, 1933, vol. ii, pp. 165 ff.↩