Augusto Cochrane de Alencar

Augusto Cochrane de Alencar belonged to a family active in Brazilian literature and public life: he was a son of novelist José de Alencar and Georgiana Cochrane. Trained in law, he entered diplomacy and briefly held the foreign affairs portfolio in an acting capacity in July 1919, during the transition to Epitácio Pessoa’s presidency. ^{1, 2}

As ambassador in Washington, Alencar concluded an exchange of notes with Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes on 18 October 1923 establishing reciprocal unconditional most favored nation tariff treatment. Each country agreed that tariff reductions granted to a third country would also apply to the other, without a new request or compensation. The arrangement preserved U.S. exceptions for Cuba, its dependencies, and the Canal Zone, and both governments’ authority to impose health and revenue safeguards. Alencar died in 1927. ^{3, 1}