During our conversation, Mr. Maximos stressed with apparent anxiety
the fact that the Greek Government has given careful and generally
favorable answers to this Legation’s various protests of
discrimination. I had anticipated such a reaction on his part and,
as the Aide-Mémoire shows, I thanked him and
assured him of our appreciation, but went on to say that the many
difficulties of all sorts encountered by American trade under the
present Greek system of control of imports by barter restrictions,
import licenses and the like, seemed in their totality to constitute
a very real form of discrimination and thus might be construed, in
the words of the Tariff Act, “as tending to defeat the purpose of
the Act,” thus excluding Greece from favorable consideration under
its provisions. Mr. Maximos promised to consider carefully all that
I said and to take my Aide-Mémoire under his
personal advisement, deferring further conversations to a later
date.
It is of course possible that the Foreign Minister’s reply to this
démarche will only be a reiteration of
his government’s official most-favored-nation attitude toward
American trade. But inasmuch as he has expressed himself definitely
as being in favor of a new commercial treaty with the United States,
the knowledge on his part of how deeply we may explore the situation
before considering such a [Page 564]
treaty may render the administration of present Greek regulations
more sensitive to American interests, and that in itself will be
something gained.
[Enclosure]
The American Minister (MacVeagh) to the Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs
(Maximos)
Aide-Mémoire
The American Minister had the honor to be received by His
Excellency, the Hellenic Minister for Foreign Affairs, and
referred to a letter which he had written to Mr. Maximos dated
May 21st, 1934, in reply to which the Foreign Minister had
verbally expressed his willingness to discuss with the American
Minister the general situation at present affecting trade
between the United States of America and Greece.
In this connection Mr. MacVeagh begged leave to call the
attention of Mr. Maximos to the principle guiding present
American commercial policy, particularly as expressed in the
recent Tariff Reciprocity Act, of which he handed Mr. Maximos a
copy. The new American commercial policy, Mr. MacVeagh said, is
based on the reasoning that increasing world trade is a better
remedy for depression than trade barriers designed to equalize
trade as between different sets of countries. The Tariff
Reciprocity Act gives concrete expression to this policy. Under
its terms the benefits which will flow to foreign countries from
agreements to be worked out in accordance with its provisions
are to be applied on the basis of unconditional
most-favored-nation treatment, subject, however, to the
important proviso that the President may withhold these benefits
from any country because of its discriminatory treatment of
American commerce, or other acts or policies which in his
opinion tend to defeat the purposes of the Act.
Mr. MacVeagh told Mr. Maximos that he hoped the Hellenic
authorities would give careful attention to this new American
attitude as he was deeply desirous that the Tariff Reciprocity
Act should open the way to increased commerce between Greece and
the United States to the benefit of both countries. At the
present time, he was sorry to say, he was under the constant
necessity of reporting to his Government certain difficulties
attending American commerce with Greece which might be construed
as defeating the purposes of the Act. He thanked Mr. Maximos for
his considerate handling of special cases of discrimination in
violation of the Modus Vivendi of 1924,
as they had from time to time been brought to his attention, but
added that he hoped it would soon be possible for him to inform
Washington that [Page 565] Greek
import quota restrictions and barter requirements no longer
constitute the actual, even if unintentional, barriers to
American commerce which they do at present.
Mr. MacVeagh called the Foreign Minister’s attention to the fact
that Greek import quotas are restricting severely the
importation of certain American products, notably motor trucks,
passenger cars, tires, dye stuffs, iron and steel bars, and
wire, though quotas for certain of these products and for many
others have been increased on numerous occasions for imports
from countries with which Greece has favorable clearing
balances.
He further pointed out that Greece has subjected to compulsory
barter all imports of a considerable number of commodities.
This, he said, involves little more than a matter of bookkeeping
in the case of countries with which Greece has barter
agreements, but virtually excludes imports of these articles
from the United States. As examples he cited fresh and dried
fruit, builders’ hardware, rubber sundries, and toilet
preparations. It is true that private clearing transactions may
be authorized in these cases but in practice this method is not
only very difficult from a business standpoint but frequently
involves long delays in obtaining official approval, thus
deterring importers from importing American goods who are
otherwise eager to do so. In addition, official approval is not
infrequently withheld entirely or made contingent upon the
choice of some Greek product for exportation which is almost
unsaleable in the United States at the time.
Mr. MacVeagh also called the Foreign Minister’s attention to the
fact that Greece has made the importation of numerous products
subject to obtaining a special permit for each individual
shipment. As examples in which the United States is particularly
interested, he named machinery and flour. The Greek Government,
he said, undoubtedly does not intend any regulation of this kind
to act as a screen for preferential treatment of other
countries, such as those with which Greece has clearing
agreements, or in which she has blocked credits. But in
practice, he said, the delays and uncertainties involved in
obtaining entry permits for American goods discourage their
importation and inevitably throw much business into other
hands.
In conclusion, Mr. MacVeagh said that the obstacles thus placed,
in one way or another, in the path of American products entering
Greece, appear to constitute in their entirety a very real form
of discrimination, in spite of the fact that American trade is
precious to the Greek Government, as he had reason to believe
from conversations already enjoyed with the Foreign Minister.
From these conversations, he felt that Mr. Maximos agreed with
him that trade should be encouraged between the two nations, and
therefore he hoped that the Foreign Minister would inform him
shortly of his government’s views on [Page 566] a matter which must enter into any
consideration of benefits to accrue to Greek trade with the
United States under the Tariff Reciprocity Act of 1934.
Athens, October 11,
1934.
