611.3531/637
The Argentine Minister for Finance (Groppo) to the Argentine Minister for Foreign Affairs (Cantilo)19
Mr. Minister: With reference to the note dated March 26 last, in which your Department was good enough to transcribe the telegram of March 24th of the Ambassador at Washington, I have to state that this Ministry does not consider it possible to accept the formula contained in said telegram, for the same reasons of which I informed Your Excellency in Note No. 33, in connection with a communication of the Department of State of the United States, duly transmitted by the Ambassador in the United States.
It is the opinion of this Department that it is possible to find a satisfactory formula only within the concepts indicated in my above-mentioned note, i. e., negotiation of the treaty on the basis of the unconditional and unlimited most-favored-nation treatment with respect to any form of control of international exchanges and payments, with the understanding that the scope of this clause for the Argentine Government cannot be other than the following:
- (1)
- Authorization of official exchange for the imports of North American products on the same conditions as with the other countries with which agreements have been concluded, i. e., up to the equivalent of the F. O. B. value of our exports to the United States after deduction of a reasonable annual sum;
- (2)
- The assurance that goods which cannot be imported with previous permits will be liquidated at a rate of exchange which in no case will be higher, on account of charges, additional charges or surtaxes, to those applied in the open market to any other country.
This Department admits the possibility of undertaking to authorize all the permits previously mentioned for articles coming from North America, which would be indicated in a minimum list.
The decision as to the articles to be included in the said list would depend on the real advantages which the United States may present for the increase in purchases in our country.
It would likewise be advantageous to agree that if, in consequence of the authorization of official exchange for the articles included in the list, a surplus of foreign exchange in a given year should be authorized, the excess must be compensated for during the following year, official exchange to be deducted for the articles on the list, to the extent necessary to produce an equilibrium.
[Page 292]On the whole, this Department believes that the principle of the said minimum list should be accepted by us only after guarantees are obtained that the United States will assure us advantages which justify such action.
Please accept [etc.]
- Copy transmitted to the Secretary of State by the Argentine Ambassador in letter of June 9, 1938.↩