Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, The American Republics, Volume IV

398.13/6–2352: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Embassy in Paraguay ¹

confidential

Washington, June 25, 1952—1:08 p.m.

180. Salvidar’s impression that Fund approval of a country’s exchange system overrides bilateral trade agreements is not correct (urtel 363 Jun 23).² US view is that tighter obligations of later bilateral agreement apply notwithstanding looser obligations of earlier multilateral agreement. Reasoning behind this is that provisions multilateral known when bilateral finalized and that parties to bilateral agreed to commitments more restrictive than those contained multilateral. US Exec Dir³ reserved US rights under its Trade Agreement with Ecuador in IMF Exec Bd Mtg of Nov 30, 1950 with respect to certain proposals of Ecuador involving exchange taxes⁴

Bruce

1. Drafted and signed by Chief of the Exchange Rates Branch Milne.
2. Not printed (398.13/6–2352).
3. Frank A. Southard, Jr.
4. Exchange rate modifications for Paraguay approved by the International Monetary Fund went into effect in August 1952. For information on this subject, see International Monetary Fund, Annual Report of the Executive Directors for the Fiscal Year Ended April 30, 1953 (Washington, 1953), pp. 83–84.