SUSPENDED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 15, 18 January 1940, Page 7

SUSPENDED.

TRADE NEGOTIATIONS. Alleged Discrimination Against United States. THE ARGENTINE MARKET. United Tress Association.—Copyright. V\ ASHIXGTON, January 17.

Speculation as to the true cause of the suspension of the trade treaty negotiations between the United States and Argentina was redoubled yesterday. A member of the Tariff Commission, Mr. Manuel Fox, told the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives, which is hearing witnesses on the extension of the Trade Agreements Act, that the State Department had protested against British and French trade discriminations against the United States in Argentina if such discriminations existed.

This cryptic statement, on which the Assistant Secretary of State, Mr. Henry Grady, who had been waiting two days to testify, refused to comment, has raised the question whether there have been undisclosed diplomatic exchanges about the Argentine situation between Britain, France and the United States. Also it has raised the question whether the United States holds Argentina or Britain and France responsible for the Argentine fiasco.

The extreme reticence on the part of everyone concerned seems to indicate the delicateness of the situation.

Mr. R. O. Woodruff, Republican member of the House of Representatives for Bay City, Michigan, stated that Argentina announced that she would buy from no other country anything she could obtain from Britain or France. That indicated that she had an agreement with those two countries so favourable that she could not afford ■to accept any proposition from the United States. Mr. Fox then stated that the negotiations with Argentina had collapsed because no assurances were given that discriminations would be stopped. He declined to amplify this statement. The State Department later announced that it had discussed with Britain and Fr&nce last month the exchange situation between them and Argentina for the purpose of obtaining information. That discussion, however, was not diplomatically regarded as a protest and the negotiations were continued afterward.