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SWITZERLAND
INFORMAL REPRESENTATIONS RESPECTING SWISS MEASURES FOR
THE CONTROL OF IMPORTS IN ALLEGED VIOLATION OF THE RE-
CIPROCAL TRADE AGREEMENT'
611.5431/548
  The Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland (Wilson)
No. 3870                           WASHINGTON, January 26, 1937.
  SIR: The Department has given careful study to the reports from
the Legation and from the consular offices in Switzerland with regard
to certain matters concerning the operation of the trade agreement
which have been the subject of discussion with the Swiss Govern-
ment. Reference is made in particular to the Swiss stamp-tax on
customs receipts (Despatch No. 4595, September 23, 1936 2), the
measures adopted for the control of lard imports (Despatch No.
4592, September 22, 19363) and the regime applicable to imports of
Douglas fir plywood (Despatch No. 4551, August 28, 1936 2).
  The replies made by the Swiss Government to the Legation's repre-
sentations on these subjects reveal an attitude on the part of the Swiss
Government which the Department is unable to regard as other than
unsatisfactory, not only from the point of view of a more liberal com-
mercial policy which it was confidently expected would result from
the trade agreement, but also in view of the specific commitments in
the trade agreement. Since the lard and plywood cases will be treated
in separate instructions, the Department wishes in this instruction
to emphasize its general concern regarding the apparent failure of
the Swiss Government to recognize its obligations under the agree-
ment in these instances. The cases to which reference is made are
not individually of far-reaching importance but the Department is
loath to see an accumulation of small issues of this nature which have
the effect of interfering with the operation of the agreement, or to
allow certain Swiss contentions with regard to the interpretation of
the agreement to go unchallenged.
   Continued from Foreign Relations, 1936, vol. II, pp. 804-815. For text
of the
reciprocal trade agreement between the United States and Switzerland, signed
January 9, 1936, see Department of State Executive Agreement Series No. 90,
or 49 Stat. 3917.
'Not printed.
  Foreign Relationw, 1936, vol. II, p. 812.
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