103.9169/7–744
The Ambassador in Chile ( Bowers ) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 18.]
The Ambassador has the honor to refer to the Embassy’s airgram no. A–462 of June 17, 1944, and previous communications in regard to the rollback of the Decentralization Plan of Export Control to a minimum positive list of commodities which require Import Recommendations, effective July 1, 1944.
The Embassy has been informed that on Wednesday, July 5, the Chilean Country Agency (National Foreign Trade Council) directed an inquiry by telephone to the Commercial Attaché of the Chilean Embassy in Washington, Mr. Mario Manes, regarding the observance of such quotas as may be assigned for the export to Chile of commodities [Page 750] considered to be in tight supply in the United States. Subsequent to this telephone conversation, Mr. José Leniz, Assistant Manager of the National Foreign Trade Council, informed the Requirements Section of the Embassy that an arrangement had now been effected under which information regarding quotas established for Chile in the Foreign Economic Administration will be communicated to Mr. Illanes at the Chilean Embassy in Washington who, in turn, will forward information regarding these quotas directly to the National Foreign Trade Council for its use as a guide in the approval of Solicitudes Previas (requests for foreign exchange). Under the same arrangement, according to Mr. Leniz, full information regarding requests for foreign exchange granted by the Council will be transmitted to Mr. Illanes for delivery to the Foreign Economic Administration as a guide in the issuance of licenses for the exportation of commodities under quota to Chile.
As a further development in connection with the foregoing, the Embassy has today been informed by several prominent importers of American merchandise that they have been told by the National Foreign Trade Council that all pending requests for foreign exchange for the importation from the United States of commodities which no longer require Import Recommendations, will be held in abeyance pending the receipt from the applicants of detailed information corresponding almost exactly to that which formerly had to be furnished in the application for an Import Recommendation prior to the rollback. The importers who have encountered these difficulties in the past few days at the National Foreign Trade Council are anxious to obtain their foreign exchange permits in accordance with established procedures before placing definite orders with their suppliers in the United States. They know, however, as does the Embassy, that a number of less responsible importers in Chile are placing definite orders with suppliers in the United States on the off-chance that export licenses can be obtained by their suppliers and that upon the arrival of the goods at a Chilean port they can obtain the necessary exchange permit on an ex post facto basis. The importers who are following a policy of strict observance of established procedures are apprehensive lest their conservative method of obtaining the approval of importations before placing firm orders with their suppliers places them at a disadvantage vis-á-vis their less conscientious competitors, in that the latter may in fact be able to obtain commodities under Chilean quotas established in the United States to the point of exhausting such quotas before the more conservative importers can obtain the necessary approval of their requests for foreign exchange in advance of placing their orders with their suppliers.