FOREIGN ECONOMIC AND COMMERCIAL POLICY


  They do not, however, consider that it would be proftable to en-
gage in further exchanges on this subject on the eve of the Tariff
negotiations. They feel sure that the negotiations will be conducted
on both sides in the friendliest spirit and in a genuine attempt to find
a common and genuinely mutually advantageous basis of agreement,
the political consideration which must weigh with both sides being,
of course, given full weight. It would be -a disappointment to the
United Kingdom as much as to the United States if only a very narrow
agreement resulted, but they still hope and feel that an arrangement
can be, come to which will go some way towards meeting what they
conceive to be the essential need in the economic sphere in present
circumstances, namely, the progressive correction of the unbalance
of trade between the United States lnd the sterling area.
   [WASHINGTONJ] 15th September, 1950.


                          Editorial Note

  Concerning the preparation for the Torquay negotiations, a princi-
pal function of the Department was to send on to the President the rec-
ommendations of the Interdepartmental Committee on Trade Agree-
ments (TAC), the highest-level policy-formulating source in the
Executive Branch with respect to United States policy regarding the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). In this connection,
the Department of State submitted to the President during the course
of the year some dozen or so "critical" recommendations, ranging
in
date from March to October. In a sense, these all came into focus in the
memoranda of September 26, which are printed below together with
certain documentation of subsequent date that arose out of a question
left unsettled by the September 26 proposals.


394.31/9-2650
    Memorandum by the Acting Secretary of State to the President

SECRET                          [WASIHINGTON,] September 26, 1950.
  There are enclosed for your approval the recommendations of the
Interdepartmental Committee on Trade Agreements with respect to
concessions to be requested of and offered -to twenty-three of the
twenty-four countries with which the United States is to negotiate
tariff concessions at the Third Set of Tariff Negotiations by the Con-
tracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade,
scheduled to open at Torquay, England on September 28.1 Supple-

  1Not attached, but see TAC memorandum, September 26, infra.


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