Latin-American States'Tie-Ups

Northern Advocate, 3 June 1947, Page 5

Latin-American States'Tie-Ups

(11 a.m.) WASHINGTON. June 2. The Senate Finance Committee published a list showing that since the war the Latin-American Republics had signed bilateral trade agreements with 39 countries. Many of these agreements are described as directly opposed to the policy of freer trade which the United States delegates arc trying tc promote at the Geneva Conference. The list, which is the first of that character to be issued for many years, shows that Argentina concluded bilateral agreements with 15 other nations, and Brazil with six. In terms of wheat, the list shows that Latin-American agreements, in cbnjunction with the Anglo-American agreement, resulted in the definite commitment of from one-third to onenaif of the amount of wheat moved in world trade before the war. Thus, substantial quantities of wheat were tied up for several years and, in 1949-50. when extraordinary world demands for wheat might be expected to ease, Argentina and Canada will still be committed each year to sell a total of 134,000,000 bushels. The State Department has sent a memorandum to the Senate Finance Committee saying that such agreements, where they involve a large volume of long-term arrangements between important trading countries. Would “obstruct the equitable balance of trade.”