ECONOMIC AVIATION CONVENTION FOR THE UNIFICATION OF CERTAIN RULES RELATING TO INTERNATIONAL AERIAL TRANSPORTATION 1 Germany The American Ambassador to Germany informed the Secretary of State by a despatch dated December 20, 1933, that the announcement of the ratification by Germany of the convention for the unification of certain rules relating to international aerial transportation, signed at Warsaw October 12, 1929, was published in part II of the Reichsgesetzblatt, no. 29, of December 19, 1933. It was stated that the convention would become effective for Germany on December 29, 1933, in accordance with the terms of articles 37 and 38 thereof. INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL COMMITTEE OF AERIAL LEGAL EXPERTS 2 The following experts have been appointed as the American members of the Comité International Technique D'Experts Juridiques Aériens (International Technical Committee of Aerial Legal Experts), frequently referred to by the initials C.I.T.E.J.A.: Members of the Committee: Mr. John C. Cooper, Jr., Jacksonville, Fla. Technical assistant to the American members: Mr. Cooper is Chairman of the Committee on Aeronautical Law of the American Bar Association. He served as Chairman of the American Delegation at the Third International Conference on Private Aerial Law. Mr. Latchford is a technical assistant (legal) in the Treaty Division, Department of State, and has specialized in international aeronautical agreements. Mr. Paulett is in charge of the legal work in the Aeronautics Branch, Department of Commerce. Mr. Fagg is Managing Director of the Air Law Institute, Northwestern University and an official of the United States Association of State Aviation officials. Mr. Ide is Technical Assistant in Europe for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and has attended a number of international aeronautical conferences. He served as a delegate to the Third International Conference on Private Aerial Law. COMMERCE RESOLUTION OF THE SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN STATES RELATING TO ECONOMIC, COMMERCIAL, AND TARIFF POLICY 3 The proposal of Secretary Hull, relating to economic, commercial, and tariff policy, which the delegation of the United States presented to the Seventh International Conference of American States on December 12, 1933, the text of which proposal was printed in Bulletin No. 51, December, 1933, pages 6 et seq., was approved by a resolution of the Conference on December 16, 1933. RESOLUTION OF THE SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN STATES RELATING TO MULTILATERAL COMMERCIAL TREATIES AND THE MOST-FAVORED-NATION CLAUSE 3 3 The proposal relating to economic, commercial, and tariff policy, approved by the Seventh International Conference of American States on December 16, 1933, contains the following paragraph : "With a view to encouraging the development of unified and comprehensive multilateral treaties as a vitally important instrument of trade liberalization, the advantages of which treaties ought not to be open to countries which refuse to confer similar advantages, the subscribing governments declare, and call upon all countries to declare, that they will not invoke their right to demand, under the most-favored-nation clause contained in bilateral treaties to which they may be parties, any benefits of multilateral treaties which have as their general purpose the liberalization of international economic relations and which are open to the accession of all countries, provided that such renunciation shall not operate in so far as the country entitled to most-favored-nation treatment in fact reciprocally accords the benefits which it seeks." 3 See p. 14. With a view to implementing this portion of the proposal, the delegation of the United States introduced a draft general agreement, which was the subject of the following resolution adopted by the Conference on December 24, 1933: "The Seventh International Conference of American States, After deliberating on the proposition of the United States of America relative to multilateral Treaties, which proposition it will deposit with the office of the Pan American Union, and adherence thereto shall be open to all countries, "Recommends: "To the Governments convened in this Conference the study of multilateral commercial treaties and of the possibility of adopting a universal agreement, or at least one which shall be accepted by the nations of greatest economic power. This agreement shall include stipulations by which the States shall be obliged not to invoke the unconditional most-favored-nation clause in bilateral treaties without assuming the corresponding obligations. "The proposition of the Delegation of the United States, to which the recommendation for study refers, is as follows: "The Governments of the Republics convened at the Seventh International Conference of American States, desirous of encouraging the development of economic relations among the peoples of the world by means of multilateral conventions, the benefits of which ought not to inure to countries which refuse to assume their obligations; and desirous also, while reaffirming as a fundamental doctrine the policy of equality of treatment, to develop such policy in a manner harmonious with the development of general economic rapprochement in which every country shall do its part; have decided to enter into an agreement for those purposes, as set forth in the following articles: "ARTICLE 1 "The High Contracting Parties, with respect to their relations with one another, will not, except as provided in Article 2 hereof, invoke the obligations of the most-favored-nation clause for the purpose of obtaining advantages enjoyed by the parties to multilateral economic conventions of general applicability, which include a trade area of substantial size, have as their objective the liberalization and promotion of international trade or other international economic intercourse, and are open to adoption by all countries. "ARTICLE 2 "Notwithstanding the stipulations of Article 1, the High Contracting Parties may demand the fulfillment of the most-favorednation clause in so far as each respectively accords in fact the benefits required by the economic agreement the advantage of which it claims. "ARTICLE 3 "The present agreement is operative on the date hereof among those Governments on behalf of which it is signed. Thereafter it shall be open to signature on behalf of any State and shall become. operative with respect to each such State on the date of signing thereby. It shall remain operative indefinitely, but any Party may terminate its own obligations hereunder three months after it has given to the Pan American Union notice of such intention. ARTICLE 4 "This agreement is a single document in Spanish, Portuguese, French and English, all of which texts are equally authoritative. It shall be deposited with the Pan American Union, which is charged with the duty of keeping it open for signature or resignature indefinitely, and with transmitting certified copies, with invitations to become parties, to all of the states of the world. In performing this function, the Pan American Union may invoke the assistance of any of its members signatory hereto." INTERNATIONAL MONETARY AND ECONOMIC CONFERENCE Albania TARIFF TRUCE According to a communication. C.L.1.1934.II.B., from the League of Nations, the following notification of the withdrawal of Albania from the tariff truce of May 12, 1933, has been received by the Secretary General: "I have the honour to inform you that in view of the denunciation by certain countries of the Tariff Truce Agreement concluded on May 12th, 1933, between the States represented on the Organising Committee of the Economic Conference, to which Albania acceded on June 16th, 1933, and in view of the numerous reservations made by other countries with regard to the application and scope of that agreement, which reservations and restrictions obviously change the terms of the Agreement, the Royal Government of Albania also has been obliged to reconsider the situation thus created. "As a result of this examination it has come to the conclusion that the benefits expected from the Tariff Truce have not fulfilled. the Albanian Government's hopes with regard to the possibility of freer international trade, and the guarantees furnished by the Truce are consequently no longer adequate to safeguard the national interests. "Moreover, the Albanian Government desires to point out that, at the time of its accession, it made a reservation to the effect that it would regard itself as free to take any necessary steps to secure a market for its products against any steps which might be taken in other countries to prohibit or restrict the importation of products of Albanian origin. "Accordingly, I have the honour to inform you that the Royal Government of Albania has decided to denounce the Truce as from January 20th, 1934." Estonia The American Legation at Tallinn reported by a despatch dated November 25, 1933, that the Estonian Government had decided to withdraw from the tariff truce of May 12, 1933, and a notification had been sent to the Estonian Minister at London on November 20, 1933, to so notify the President of the Economic Conference. Iraq A circular letter, C.L.237.1933.II.B., from the League of Nations, quotes as follows the notification received by the Secretary General regarding the withdrawal of Iraq from the tariff truce: "BAGHDAD, December 9, 1933. "I have the honour to inform you that in view of the denunciation by several countries of the Tariff Truce, concluded on the 12th May last, and of the far reaching reservations made by others, which have rendered the agreement practically inoperative, my Government has decided to denounce the Tariff Truce and gives notice of its denunciation this day." Latvia The American Legation at Riga reported by a despatch dated December 14, 1933, that it had been announced in the Latvian press that the Cabinet of Ministers had decided on December 5, 1933, to denounce the tariff truce, and that notification of the denunciation was forwarded to the Secretary General of the League of Nations. Lithuania The American Chargé d'Affaires ad interim at Kaunas reported by a despatch dated December 5, 1933, that the Lithuanian Government had communicated on November 14, 1933, to the Secretary General of the League of Nations its decision to denounce the tariff truce adopted on May 12, 1933. |