FOREIGN RELATIONS, 1950, VOLUME I


and thus in furthering one of the major objectives of Point Four.
Concurrently, there has been growing appreciation of the value of
those provisions in commercial treaties which provide assurances
respecting fundamental personal rights ýand of the way in which such
provisions contribute to the development of a favorable climate for
investment. It has been noted that private business interests are. par-
ticularly aware of the importance of assurances of this kind and of
their direct relation to actual business operations abroad.

Negotiating Problems
  The main negotiating problem      continues to be the reluctance of
many foreign countries to grant-national treatment for a wide variety
of economic activities. In a large number of cases this reluctance still
isgiven practical expression in the desire to maintain a "screening"'
process in order to permit the exclusion of enterprises which for one
reason or other are not welcome on the same basis as locally controlled
enterprises. In some cases screening and other devices for avoiding
grants of national treatment appear to be based upon straightforward-
considerations of economic nationalism. In a number of cases, however,
the attitude of foreign countries appears to be conditioned by their
existing commitments to other countries under the most-favored-
nation clause. As a rule foreign countries avow that they are willing
to accord extensive establishment rights to American citizens and'
enterprises but are equally anxious to avoid the necessity of extend-
ing those rights to certain third countries. In addition to these per-
plexing problems, questions involving expropriations and exchange
control have continued to present a substantial degree of negotiating
difficulty.

  4For text of the January 21, 1950, treaty of friendship, commerce, and
naviga--
tion with Ireland, which entered into force upon the exchange of ratifications
September 14, 1950, see Department of State Treaties and Other International
Acts Series (TIAS) No. 2155. For text of the November 23, 1949, treaty of
friendship, commerce, and economic development with Uruguay, which the-
United States Senate approved on August 9, 1950, but which the President
delayed ratifying pending approval of the treaty by the Uruguayan Government,
see Department of State Bulletin, September 25, 1950, pp. 502 if. See also
the-
statement made before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 4, 1950,
by Willard L. Thorp, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, entitled
"Economic Treaties with Uruguay and Ireland," ibid., May 22, 1950,
pp. 811 if.
Mr. Thorp cited these treaties as examples of the new types of economic develop-
ment and investment treaties which the United States was interested in nego-
tiating with certain countries. Regarding the Point IV program, see pp. 846
ff.


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