825.24/1333
The American Ambassador in Chile (Bowers) to the Chilean Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs (Allafd)19
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of His Excellency, the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ confidential note No. 69 of August 4, 194320 (Department of Commercial Policy), confirming that the Government of Chile, desirous of cooperating to the utmost of its resources in the efforts of the United States of America to increase its supplies of strategic materials, expresses its accord to entering into an agreement with the Government of the United States by which there shall be established standards for limiting the consumption of copper to essential uses not only within the country but also for exportation to the other Latin American Republics, while at the same time attending to the possibilities of Chilean industry for the manufacture of that metal.
The following named documents serve as a basis for this agreement: Second Resolution of the Third Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Relations of the American Republics, held in Rio de Janeiro from the [Page 852] 15th to the 18th [_28th] of February [January] 1942;21 note No. 861, dated January 26, 1942,22 from Ambassador Claude G. Bowers to His Excellency don Guillermo del Pedregal, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile; note No. 1906 dated March 22, 1943,23 addressed by the Ambassador of the United States to the Minister of Foreign Affairs; reply of the Minister of Foreign Affairs by note No. 01922, dated April 15, 1943,23 and the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ note No. 03125 of June 18, 1943,23 addressed to the Ambassador of the United States; it being understood that the documents and agreements mentioned above will remain in force except where they may be contradictory to the present document.
According to the terms established in these documents regarding mutual aid, it is agreed that the Government of the United States and the Government of Chile will limit, for the duration of the present war, internal consumption as well as exportations of copper, brass, bronze and copper sulphate, in the following manner:
1) The use and exportation of Chilean copper, brass and bronze, either manufactured or in ingots in their various forms and copper sulphate will be limited to the essential requirements of each one of the American Republics.
2) Essential requirements shall be those products necessary for military needs, for the maintenance, repair and operation of public utilities and industries directly engaged in production for the prosecution of the war.
Exhibit A,24 which forms an integral part of the present agreement, lists the articles which, in accordance with the foregoing paragraph, shall not be made of copper or its alloys.
If the Government of the United States introduces changes in the regulations in effect in that country in respect to the articles whose manufacture of copper or its alloys is prohibited, such changes shall not apply to this agreement unless approved by the Chilean Government.
3) In the quarterly estimates of requirements for copper, brass, bronze and copper sulphate, which are fixed for each one of the American Republics, preference will be given to the exports relating to the military needs of the United Nations indispensable for the prosecution of the war.
4) The total essential requirements of all the American Republics, except the United States, will not exceed 18,000 metric tons per year and will be divided into quarterly amounts of 4,500 metric tons. Any quarterly amount which is not used will lapse, and will not be cumulative.
5) The export of ingot in all its forms from Chile, made by the companies organized or controlled in the United States will be subject [Page 853] to the joint authorizations of the agencies of the United States Government and the Ministry of Economy and Commerce of Chile.
In order to implement the provisions above indicated and to aid Chile in the development of her copper manufacturing industry, it is mutually agreed:
- a)
- That the Agencies duly designated by the United States Government will aid the Agencies of the Government of Chile by putting at their disposal, as soon as determined, the essential requirements of the other American Republics for each future quarter, with specifications regarding the type of manufactured products and the amount thereof needed by each Republic.
- b)
- The Agencies of the United States Government will send the above information directly to the Embassy of the United States in Santiago, together with all details regarding the applications for products, in order that it may be transmitted to the Ministry of Economy and Commerce which will authorize the fulfillment of such orders and their delivery to the importing countries in accordance with normal commercial procedures. The details of the transaction between the seller and buyer will be agreed upon exclusively by them.
- c)
- On its part, the Ministry of Economy and Commerce will return within 30 days to the Embassy of the United States the orders which are not agreed to by the manufacturers or producing enterprises of the country and the prospective buyers of the other countries.
- d)
- The Ministry of Economy and Commerce, or Agency duly designated by the Government of Chile, will consult with the Embassy of the United States about matters relating to export applications of copper in any of its forms. The Embassy of the United States will pass upon export applications within thirty days of the date of receipt of such applications from the National Foreign Trade Council, except in cases where, by mutual agreement of the parties, another procedure is decided upon. In passing on export applications, the Embassy of the United States will be guided by the regulations of the War Production Board as the means of providing equal treatment in the determination of essentiality.
- e)
- Any shipments made from Chile to any other American Republic will be deducted from the requirements schedule of the country of destination.
- f)
- The Government of the United States and the Government of Chile agree to supply the other American Republics, insofar as possible, with their indispensable essential requirements of copper, brass and bronze in all their forms and in the form of copper sulphate.
- g)
- The control of the amounts of copper and its alloys necessary for the use of the arsenals for the Air Force, Army and Navy of Chile will be exercised by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce. This consumption will not be included in the quota set for the internal consumption of Chile.
- h)
- Chilean industrialists, in order to satisfy the essential requirements of the American Republics, other than the United States, will have the necessary amount of copper, up to the limit of 18,000 metric tons annually, of which up to 3,300 tons are available for the essential [Page 854] requirements and the maintenance of the indispensable vital activities of Chile itself.
- i)
- It is understood that the quarterly quotas of copper will be considered as having been used, for the purposes of the paragraph 4 as soon as the Ministry of Economy and Commerce shall have issued to the producing companies the order to deliver the copper, according to the orders of the manufacturers and/or exporters.
- j)
- Copper inventories of industrialists will be limited to the requirements for essential uses for 30 days.
This note, which I have been duly authorized by my Government to sign and forward, and that of His Excellency the Minister of Foreign Affairs, dated August 4, 1943,26 and in similar language constitute an agreement between the two Governments.
Accept [etc.]
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Ambassador in his despatch No. 7314, August 18; received August 25.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Department of State Bulletin, February 7, 1942, p. 119.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. vi, p. 48.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Not printed; see footnote 84, p. 831.↩
- No. 69, not printed.↩