NEW TRADE POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 19, 23 January 1940, Page 14

NEW TRADE POLICY

ARGENTINA'S PLAN

BRITAIN /WD FRANCE FIRST

(From "The Post's" Representative.) BUENOS AIRES, December 6,. The Argentine Government, pro-> foundly impressed by the action of the British .and French Governments in combining their purchasing offices .here, announces a new trade policy based on the Roca-Runciman Treatjr of 1933, and designed to prevent, as far as possible, purchases from any other country for the duration of the war. Almost immediately after the announcement, the Admiralty indicated that a system of convoys for Allied merchant vessels is being instituted in Argentina and Uruguay. Sir Robert Chadwick has' arrived to represent the British Ministry of Shipping: It is Icnown here that at least 24 German vesels, many of them of large tonnage, which sailed from South American waters since the war started, have been accounted for by the British Navy—captured, sunk, or scuttled by their own crews when they were overtaken. "All requests for exchange for importations from other countries of j merchandise that can in some form j be acquired in Great Britain will be refused," said the Director of the Exchange Control Bureau, Senor Louro. His statement accompanied the trans- j mission to importers, manufacturers, ] and business men of an official declaration by the Government that Argentina must increase her dependence on compensating trade agreements begun by the Roca-Runciman Treaty, to put into operation the policy, "Buy f from those who buy from US."/' ;. { : '. ' ORGANISATION OF IMPORTS. In banking and commercial circles, the Government's announcement created the impression that it portended the negotiation of a new, comprehensive barter and compensation agreement with Great Britain and France. The Exchange Control Bureau's circular said: "There are very clear indications that the importance of our sales to the Allies will depend very closely on the value of the merchandise that we continue to buy from them. It is necessary, therefore, for the sake of our export trade, that we take care that our import requirements continue to be satisfied at our normal sources of supply, and that we avoid unnecessary deflections to other countries, as this might bring later complications that it is advisable to prevent beforehand. The tendency is to accentuate the commercial regime of compensation agreements, which was begun by the treaty of 1933 with Great Britain, the stipulations of which must be taken into account in granting exchange permits."

Senor Louro explained that the Government felt it was advisable that business, industry, and the population' in general should know that the repercussions of this war on Argentina's economy would be very different from those of 25 years ago. "We must import, and even facilitate importations in whatever measure necessary. Faced with organised buyers (Great Britain and France) who have co-ordinated their economy, we must also organise our purchases, and so direct them as to provide foreign exchange for those countries that are going to buy pur crops and our meat." He cited the Roca-Runciman Treaty as a model of the commercial action that Argentina must carry out during this war.