Office of the Historian

835.24/1329

Memorandum for the Under Secretary of State on the Economic Policy Toward Argentina76

[Extract]
[Washington,] March 4, 1943.

Objectives of Policy

1.
To secure the optimum utilization of those critical materials or supplies which Argentina produces and which are essential for the conduct of the war;
2.
To assure the maximum utilization of critical materials and transportation facilities by the United Nations for supplying their needs and those of the countries cooperating with them in the war effort;
3.
To make available to Argentina such goods and services as it may require within the scope of paragraphs (1) and (2) above;
4.
To supply Argentine requirements above those outlined in the previous paragraph only if the consequent sacrifices on the part of the United Nations are compensated by the effective cooperation of Argentina in preventing the use of its territory as a base for Axis subversive activities and prohibiting the use of its financial, trade, and communication facilities by the Axis.

Implementation op Policy

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5. Financial and other Measures.

(a)
Complete, as soon as possible, the survey now being made by the Embassy to determine the extent to which the failure by Argentina to comply with its commitments at Rio and Washington is aiding the Axis;
(b)
Extend no government credits of any kind to Argentina. (The proposed Export-Import Bank special credits have already been eliminated.);
(c)
Increase the effectiveness of the Proclaimed List through proper consignee control and supervision of imports from the United States and, through cooperation with the British, limiting imports from that country to proper consignees;
(d)
Increase the effectiveness of Navicert Control by again giving the Embassy the right to examine proposed Argentine consignees;
(e)
In collaboration with the Treasury Department, strengthen measures designed to cut off transactions involving assets within the United States or United States concerns, when such transactions may directly or indirectly benefit the Axis. An example of such measures would be the suspensive ad hoc freezing, pending investigation of “Argentine accounts” in the United States which are believed to be beneficially owned or controlled by undesirable elements in Argentina or abroad;
(f)
Present the Dresdener Bank case to the Inter-American Financial and Economic Advisory Committee at the earliest possible date.
  1. Drawn up by members of the Board of Economic Operations and of the Division of the American Republics, Department of State.↩