Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1943, The American Republics, Volume V

811.20 (D) Regulations/9893: Airgram

The Minister in Costa Rica (Scotten) to the Secretary of State

San José, February 25, 1943—10 a.m.
[Received February 27—2 p.m.]

A–446. For George Parkhurst, BEW,²⁶ and C. M. Ravndal of the Department²⁷ from J. A. R. Dalley and H. W. Moseley.²⁸ It should be relatively easy for Costa Rica to put the completed Decentralization Plan²⁹ into effect, as most imported materials have previously required a Certificate of Necessity or Certificate of Essentiality. The principles of the plan have been enthusiastically received by the Country Agency³⁰ and Carlos Escalante, Minister of Finance, under whose supervision the Country Agency operates.

The following operational problems have arisen:

A. The requirements of the Pan American Highway are using up much of the allotted shipping space. No estimates of the amount of these requirements can be obtained, and therefore the allocation of space for this project cannot be estimated here. The imports for this project are considerable. Unless a special allotment of shipping space for Costa Rica can be given for the needs of the highway, exclusive of regular Costa Rican requirements, it will not be possible for decentralization to work satisfactorily here, as Import Recommendations must be issued within an estimated shipping tonnage.

B. Definite instructions are needed here on how to handle Canadian and Empire shipments under the Decentralization Plan. Canadian shipments are considerable, and the question arises whether the importer should send the approved form to the Canadian importer, and how the Canadian importer should then proceed to obtain license and shipping space, etc.³¹

C. Costa Rica has several approved projects, and several requests for project licenses are now pending before the Board. The same questions regarding the handling of projects arise here as was indicated in our Airgram A–53 of February 11th, from Tegucigalpa, Honduras.³² A reply to the questions raised in this airgram should also be sent to the Legation in Costa Rica.

D. The Legation has requested that five copies of Schedule B³³ be sent to it as soon as possible.

• [Dalley and Moseley]
• Scotten

26. Board of Economic Warfare.
27. Christian M. Ravndal, Chief of the Division of Exports and Requirements.
28. J. A. R. Dalley, Board of Economic Warfare representative in San José, and Harold W. Moseley of the American Hemisphere Exports Office of the Department of State.
29. Decentralization Plan A as outlined in the Department’s circular airgram of January 19, 8 p.m., p. 106.
30. The Costa Rican office responsible for administering import controls.
31. For inclusion of Canada in the Decentralization Plan, see circular airgram, April 29, 8:50 p.m., p. 113.
32. Not printed.
33. A statistical classification of domestic and foreign commodities exported from the United States; drawn up by the Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce.