ARGENTINE-BRITAIN MEAT TRADE

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26264, 8 November 1950, Page 9

ARGENTINE-BRITAIN MEAT TRADE

HOPES OF BREAKING IMPASSE (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON. November 7. Although there is no evidence to suggest that a resumption of the meat trade talks between Britain and'the Argentine' is ifnminent, local business circles are inclined to be more hopeful of an eventual breaking of the impasse, says the "Financial Times’" Buenos Aires correspondent. "So far the suspension of trade has had little direct effect on the country’s economy, but, indirectly, the effect, of over three months’ suspension of trade | (which for the year ended June 30 last earned Argentina £47,000,000), cannot but be regarded as serious.” The correspondent says that privatelycompiled statistics of Argentine meat exports, from January 1 to October 23, noticeably reflect the stoppage of trade with Britain since July 31. Beef exports to all destinations were 2.500,000 quarters against 3.800,000 quarters in the same period in 1949, 3.200,000 in 1948, and 4,000,000 in 1947. Meat, lamb,, and mutton shipments were 1.400,000 carcases, against 2.600,000, 3.100,000, and 4.800,000 respectively. Canned meat exports were 93,000 metric tens, against 60,000,000, 82,000,000, and 129,000 respectively. The correspondent adds "that the Argentine is able to sustain this severe recession in meat trade without the collapse of the cattle market, and a crisis in the stock-raising sector is largely due to the delayed effects of heavy livestock losses from the 1949-50 drought tenin porarily impairing the reproductive capacity of herds and resulting in con-, siderably rdbuced deliveries of animals to the market. The domestic meat market demand, which normally absorbs 70 per cent of production, continues to be fully operative in the present circumstances of full employment”