As soon as the colonists became resolutely determined to become independent (and remember, the penalty for those who rebelled against the king as described in your book on p. 146 in the brown text box– it wasn’t pretty), they knew they needed foreign alliances and assistance. Therefore, a generic treaty outlining the kinds of general things the Congress would be looking for in an alliance with a foreign power was created. This was known as “The Model Treaty.” The Model Treaty was crafted with Spain and France in mind as the countries most likely to support the colonists against their long-running enemies, the British. (The enemy of my enemy is my friend….)
In 1778, the US and France agreed to the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, based upon the Model Treaty, which formalized a trade relationship between these two countries. The State Department website explains this treaty with these words
“The United States would have to wait until early 1778 for France to formally agree to a treaty. The formal treaty differed from Model Treaty in that the two countries granted each other most favored nation trading privileges, and also allowed for the presence of consuls in each others’ cities. In addition, the Treaty of Alliance provided additional military stipulations relating to the terms of the alliance, ceding any military gains in North America to the United States, and those in the Caribbean to France. More importantly, France agreed not to seek peace with Great Britain without British acknowledgement of American independence, and neither allied country was to seek peace without the others’ consent. Other countries were encouraged to join the alliance, but only if both French and American negotiators were present. The 1778 treaty also included a secret clause allowing for articles to be altered if Spain chose to join the alliance.”
This treaty between France and the US would remain in effect until the so-called Quasi-War with France broke out in 1798-1800, long after our independence had been acknowledged in the Treaty of Paris in 1783. I’m sure the French thought that we weren’t being very grateful, there, but we’ll explain that later….)
The Model Treaty would ask the signatory to agree to granting the Americans most-favored nation status in trade. This meant each side would grant lower tariff rates on each other’s goods than countries that did not have this designation (nowadays, practically every nation with which we do business has been granted MFN status, and here in the US this status has actually been renamed “Normative Trade Relations” since 1998, which implies that a country is actively being penalized if they do not have it). All countries granted MFN status receive the same duty or tariff rate, so this policy effectively keeps tariff levels uniform for everyone who has a trade relationship with the US.
An ironic point to make here is that later, under the administration of George Washington, Americans become suspicious of foreign “entanglements” and declare neutrality in the problems of Europe. Why do you think this is so? (Hint: look back to p. 111 in your text.)
More information here from the State Department
The Scoop on History-APUSH and more 
Posted by steve on September 15, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Washington Declared neutrality because we wanted to avoid the french and indian war. Or as in europe it was know as the 7 years war.
Posted by Robert on October 22, 2011 at 4:20 pm
It was the French Revolution, but yes he did not want to become further entrenched in European affairs, especially with The States so young and with enough domestic problems, so they avoid assistance on a technicality.