223. Memorandum of a Conversation Between the Argentine Ambassador (Adolfo Vicchi) and the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Holland), Department of State, Washington, August 30, 19561
SUBJECT
- Financial Assistance for Argentina
The Ambassador said that Dr. Coll Benegas had dined the night before with representatives of the Export-Import Bank and had come away quite despondent at the course of negotiations. Dr. Coll had formed the impression that the Bank was willing to undertake a program of financing in the transportation field, but that it was unwilling to do any financing at this time in the field of power. He wanted to know whether this was true, and, if so, where the Bank was unwilling to enter the field of power. He asked whether it was because the Bank set as a condition precedent solution of the problems of the American & Foreign Power, or whether it was because the Bank was unwilling to see the Argentine Government [Page 440] construct the generating plant which it wants to construct for service to Buenos Aires.
I replied that I did not know what the Bank proposed to do; that I did not know what obstacles might exist to credits in the power field but that, as I had always told the Argentine representatives, I doubted that the Bank would extend credit for any project which any private enterprise was willing to finance.
The Ambassador said that he understood that the Bank might be willing to open its financing with a credit of approximately $100 million; that the Argentines felt this was far too little; that the Export-Import Bank and International Bank had authorized loans amounting to almost $1 billion to Brazil and that credits to Argentina were disproportionately low.
I replied that if the Bank were willing to extend a line of credit, as he suggested, of $100 million and at the same time indicated any willingness to consider other projects, I would feel that the Coll Benegas mission had achieved an outstanding success. I said that I felt that as important as the amount of the initial loan was the willingness of the Bank to enter the field. This would permit the development of other projects in the future.
The United States is entering a period of presidential campaigns. The Argentine Government should do everything that it can to avoid any possibility that the granting of financing to it by the Export-Import Bank might provoke issues in the forthcoming campaign. Therefore, it should undertake to advance its negotiations for settlement of the problems of the American & Foreign Power and of the meat packing industry to such a point that the United States citizens interested in those problems would not criticize the United States Government if it extended credits to Argentina. I said that I understood that Dr. Coll Benegas intended to visit Chicago on the 4th and 5th of September, and that this would give him an opportunity to give the meat packing representatives such assurances as would achieve the objective that I had indicated.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 835.00/8–3056. Confidential. Drafted by Holland.↩