Commodity Agreements for Latin America

Report Outline
Commodity Agreements for Latin America
United States and Commodity Agreements
Difficult Path of Price Stabilization
Special Focus

Commodity Agreements for Latin America

Commidity Question at Coming Uruguay Parley

Means to increase, or at least to stabilize, returns from exports of the primary commodities that are the economic lifeblood of Latin America will occupy a prominent place in deliberations of the Inter-American Economic and Social Council at a special meeting opening August 5 at Punta del Este, Uruguay. President Kennedy, forced to give up earlier plans to attend the meeting, described it on July 19 as “the most important international gathering since the beginning of this administration.” The President said that he hoped and believed that proposals for carrying out his “Alliance for Progress” plan, to be presented to fellow delegates of the American republics by Secretary of the Treasury Douglas Dillon, would “mark a historic turning point in the life of the Americas.”

When Kennedy, speaking at a White House reception for Latin American diplomats on March 13, advanced the concept of a hemispheric Alliance for Progress, he alluded to the question of commodity exports by saying:

The United States is ready to cooperate in serious, case-by-case examinations of commodity market problems. Frequent violent changes in commodity prices seriously injure the economies of many Latin American countries—draining their resources and stultifying their growth. Together we must find practical methods of bringing an end to this pattern.