611.3531/634: Telegram
The Consul at Buenos Aires (Ravndal) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:40 p.m.]
Referring to my despatch No. 330 of May 2018 and my report to the Embassy of the same date regarding the restriction in the granting of official dollar exchange for merchandise imports.
It has been learned from a usually reliable source that the Argentine Government is contemplating shortly placing on a quota basis imports from all foreign countries, the quotas to be measured by the extent of the foreign countries’ purchases of Argentine products.
The economic advisers of the Central Bank insisted in an unofficial conversation with me today that, not counting the redemption of the dollar debt, Argentina has already granted the United States more official exchange than has been created by United States purchases since the beginning of exchange control and that it will be necessary drastically to restrict the granting of official dollar exchange until existing trade conditions improve. The Consulate General is preparing data which it is thought will refute this contention.
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