2.                             
 
 
or limited transactions, especially those partaking of a 
bartering nature. It is the policy of the State Department 
to maintain the broad general policy and practice, as nearly 
as possible, of the doctrine of equality of commercial and 
industrial treatment, and hence, of opposition to its 
violation by the numerous sorts of discriminations and 
preferences well known to the public. This doctrine is 
the corner stone of our present foreign policy and of our 
reciprocal trade agreement program; it is the basis of our 
repeated protests to Germany, in particular, against her 
discriminations against us and the preferences recently 
granted to other countries and their nationals, with 
respect both to the payment of debt service and to trade.
 
 
If exceptions are made to the most-favored-nation policy 
of equality, it should be made only in case of emergency 
and temporary conditions and upon thoroughly considered 
decisions.    This rule should not, of course, minimize 
the important needs of export markets for our various 
burdensome agricultural and other surpluses, but instead 
these needs should at all times be duly considered.
 
 
The sole purpose of the present program of
reciprocity trade agreements is to provide as rapidly as
 
 
possible in