Memorandum from Secretary of State James Byrnes to President Harry S. Truman

ADDRESS OFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE WASHINGTON, D.C. DEPARTMENT OF STATE WASHINGTON MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT Subject: Trade Relations with the Philippines Since bills dealing with United States- Philippine trade relations have been referred to Congressional committees for study, the need has arisen for final determination of Administration policy on this subject. Reports of the Joint Preparatory Committee on Philippine Affairs and the Executive Com- mittee on Economic Foreign Policy The most comprehensive report on United States- Philippine trade relations was prepared jointly in 1937 and 1938 by the Filipino and American members of the Joint Preparatory Committee on Philippine Affairs. This report, which was approved by Presidents Roosevelt and Quezon, recommended a twenty-year program of "declining preferences". During the current year, the Executive Com- mittee on Economic Foreign Policy has re-examined the whole question. In a report of March 16, which was approved by President Roosevelt, the Committee opposed a proposal (made by Filipino members of the Filipino Rehabili tation Commission) for twenty years of free trade. In a second report (June 26), the Committee recommended that the program of declining preferences, as developed earlier by the Joint Preparatory Committee on Philippine Affairs, still constituted the best policy for the United States to follow. The Interior Department dissented. Proposed