811.503135/5–1949
Memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Division of River Plate Affairs (Atwood) to the Director of the Office of American Republic Affairs (Daniels)
On May 10 soon after Ambassador Remorino’s return from Buenos Aires he called on Mr. Daniels and during the conversation which took place proposed the immediate establishment of a committee of US and Argentine officials to conduct studies with respect to business and commercial relations between Argentina and the United States. Having in mind the delicate balance between the forces in Argentina favorable to and against our views, Mr. Daniels believed that immediate cooperation in this proposal was desirable.
When Ambassador Remorino left for Buenos Aires several weeks, ago there was little hope for improvement in US-Argentine economic relations. Argentina was continuing in its State-controlled economy, onerous export taxes and commissions were collected by the Argentine Trade Promotion Institute thus limiting trade, the US packing industry and other US firms were either about to close their doors or curtail operations substantially because they were not able to operate under Argentine Government imposed labor and price regulations; a threatening expropriation article in the newly adopted Argentine Constitution hung over the heads of many US enterprises and no effective steps were being taken to pay the dollar debt to US banks and exporters. Mr. Daniels made our views on these matters unmistakably clear to the Ambassador prior to the latter’s departure for Buenos Aires and the latter during his short stay in Buenos Aires set forth the US point of view forcibly and effectively. The Ambassador’s talk with Mr. Daniels on May 10, before the matter of the joint committee entered the conversation, indicated clearly that the Argentine Government had instructed the Ambassador to give the United States certain assurances which if carried out would represent a reversal of the policy [Page 500] which the Argentine Government has been following and which has proved so disastrous to US-Argentine relations. (Our Embassy in Buenos Aires agrees with this view.) That Government was taking the Trade Promotion Institute out of commercial operations; it was doing away with the taxes and commissions which the Trade Promotion Institute had been collecting; it was working day and night to reach a solution of the packing house problem; the expropriation article of the Constitution was being interpreted in an encouraging manner, and steps had already been taken to pay off the dollar debt to US banks and exporters. While this was not a moment for unbridled optimism, it was felt to be a strategic moment to encourage the pro-US and pro-free enterprise elements in the Argentine Government which appeared for the time being to have the upper hand in the struggle over the more anti-US and nationalistic groups within the Perón Government.
Ambassador Remorino has made a statement to the press on the creation of this joint committee. He has asked the Department to make a similar statement so that it will be evident to the public that the United States is equally interested. Foreign Minister Bramuglia and the Economic Council have been discussing the matter and are expecting that the United States will issue a statement. In these circumstances it is most desirable to issue a release which in effect supports what Ambassador Remorino has already stated.1
Our real hope in our US-Argentine relations is the encouragement of those elements in the Perón Government which are favorable to the United States. The activities of the proposed committee would in fact be but a continuation of the discussions which have already been carried on between the Argentine Embassy and the Departments of State and Commerce.
- For the text of Department of State press release No. 398, May 27, 1949, see Department of State Bulletin, June 5, 1949, p. 734.↩