835.51/1406: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Argentina (Armour)
306. Your 621, December 19, 11 a.m.24 The Central Bank’s 60 million dollar contract with the Export-Import Bank was signed December 23; its 50 million dollar contract with the Treasury December 27. Copies of the contracts are being forwarded to you by airmail. The Export-Import Bank contract provides that the credit will be utilized for the purpose of providing United States dollar exchange to meet Argentine commercial obligations incurred in the purchase and exportation to Argentina of products produced or manufactured substantially in their entirety in the United States or the territories thereof. The Treasury contract does not specify how the credit shall be used beyond that it shall be used in stabilizing the United States dollar Argentine peso exchange rate. No definite arrangement was effected regarding the application of non-discriminatory treatment, but it was understood that such treatment would be the rule.
Consideration is being given to the early issue of a joint statement by the two Governments indicating that behind the exchange arrangements is a broad program of economic cooperation. Further details will be telegraphed later.
[For a joint statement concerning the Stabilization Agreement, issued in Washington on December 27, 1940, by the Secretary of the Treasury, the Argentine Ambassador, and the General Manager of the Central Bank of Argentina, see Department of State Bulletin, December 28, 1940, page 590.]
- Not printed.↩