825.24/1676: Telegram
The Ambassador in Chile ( Bowers ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10 p.m.]
41. The Ministry of Economy and Commerce insists that Chile be granted its full quantity quota on the basis of the copper agreement [Page 711] which allows Chile 3,300 tons a year; therefore it appears that in answering your 10, January 4, 3 a.m.,15 FEA will have to make sufficient adjustments of the quotas of other countries to bring total within the 18,000 ton annual limit. It is possible to construe the copper agreement as not applying insofar as quotas are concerned to the military needs of other countries but that construction would apparently leave the Argentine door fairly wide open. The Minister of Economy and Commerce is holding up approval of the 545 tons refinery shapes for Brazil fourth quarter quota I am unofficially informed because of the piece [price] reductions in the Overall Agreement proposed by FEA. The Embassy will attempt to obtain release of those shipments in a short time.
- Not printed; it indicated the quotas of copper refinery shapes from Chile for other American Republics (103.9169/1944).↩