Table 11.-Principal Commodities in Trade of the United States With Argentina— Household refrigerators only. 1Figures for 1929 and 1932 have not been adjusted for minor transfers in classifications of later years. "Less than 500. BOLIVIA Since United States exports to Bolivia pass through bordering countries, official statistics, which do not show transshipments, understate the amount of trade with that country. Similarly, since shipments of Bolivian tin are not made directly, but reach the United States after being smelted in the United Kingdom, import statistics are not complete. According to United States statistics, exports to Bolivia decreased from $5,863,000 in 1937 to $5,395,000 in 1938, while direct imports (for consumption) were $344,000, as compared with the 1937 figure of $589,000. The following were the leading United States exports to Bolivia in 1938: Machinery and vehicles valued at $3,026,000 ($2,792,000 in 1937), of which automobiles (including parts and accessories) represented $886,000 ($1,192,000 in 1937), mining and quarrying machinery $462,000 ($589,000 in 1937), and aircraft $254,000 ($258,000 in 1937); metals and other manufactures, $539,000 ($710,000 in 1937); chemicals and related products, $292,000 ($277,000 in 1937); petroleum and products, $277,000 ($327,000 in 1937); and raw cotton, 3,600 | bales at $224,000 (4,000 bales, $321,000 in 1937). Among the imports, antimony ore amounted to 2,265,000 pounds valued at $159,000 in 1938 (2,093,000 pounds, $170,000 in 1937) and crude rubber to 465,000 pounds at $53,000 (52,646 pounds, $13,149 in 1937); Brazil nuts, tungsten, and tin were smaller in value than these two items. BRAZIL Following the trend of trade with the world, United States commodity exchange with Brazil declined in value during 1938 as compared with 1937, although remaining—at least with regard to our exports to that country-generally above the level of the years immediately preceding 1937. The proportion of our total exports sent to Brazil remained at 2 percent, a ratio which has varied but slightly since 1934, while the proportion of our total imports furnished by Brazil increased to 5 percent, the highest ratio since 1934. The decrease of 9.7 percent in the value of exports to Brazil in 1938, as compared with the year preceding, consequent to a slight business recession paralleled the trend in Brazil's generally smaller volume of imports in 1938. Uncertainty over world conditions, lower market prices for some of Brazil's main export products and a correspondingly lower income therefrom, and, to some extent, reaction to the unusual circumstance of a surplus of import values over export values, which existed in the first 4 months of the year—these factors all affected purchases of United States goods. Exchange was made available for American imports after delays of several weeks following presentation of documents and deposit of Brazilian funds by Brazilian importers. That competition in the Brazilian market remained severe for our goods is indicated by the fact that the United States, which was superseded in first place by Germany in 1936, continued to occupy a secondary place in 1938. Export Commodities. The decrease in United States exports of finished manufactures to Brazil was, however, quite moderate (from $55,112,000 in 1937 to 1 $51,627,000 in 1938), and this class of goods rose in importance from 81.3 percent in 1929 and 80.7 percent in 1937 to 83.7 percent of the exports in 1938. Exports of manufactured foodstuffs, although always a minor part of the trade, have shown a downward trend over a period of years, largely because of a lessening of Brazil's dependence upon foreign wheat flour and other grain products. Crude foodstuffs now form a larger part of exports than manufactured foodstuffs. The value of this class declined somewhat as compared with 1937, principally in such products as wheat and some of the fresh fruits. Shipments of fresh apples, however, increased in value. Semimanufactures and crude materials from the United States have recently been entering Brazilian markets in growing volume, but they D.D.9140 | 1901-1905 1906-1910 | 1911-1915 | 1916-1920| 1921 -1925 | 1926-1930| 1931-1935 | 1936-1940 were not so large a proportion of total exports in 1938 as in 1937although higher than in 1929. A noteworthy decrease in this group was in tinplate and taggers' tin, the value of which declined to $1,430,000 in 1938 from the unusually high figure of $3,392,000 in 1937. Import Commodities The value of United States imports from Brazil declined 19 percent as compared with 1937, partly as a result of the lower prices of coffee and cocoa. Coffee was, as usual, the principal import from Brazil, and Brazil furnished a larger proportion of our total coffee imports in 1938 than in other recent years. The decline in prices of Brazilian coffee late in 1937, as a result of that Government's action in modifying its control of coffee exports and reducing the export tax, stimulated United States purchases, so that imports of Brazilian coffee increased to slightly more than 1,200,000,000 pounds in 1938 from 876,000,000 pounds in 1937. These figures represent 60 percent and 52 percent of our total imports of coffee in the two years, respectively. The drop in prices, however, brought the value of coffee imports to $67,426,000 from $70,578,000 in 1937. The quantity of coffee received from Brazil in 1938 was exceeded only in 1931, when shipments under the so-called Farm Board deal and other special arrangements resulted in a record figure of 1,236,000,000 pounds. The value of cocoa, our second most important import from Brazil, decreased from $13,905,000 to $8,258,000 by reason of the decline in the average unit value from 71⁄2 cents per pound in 1937 to 41⁄2 cents per pound in 1938. The quantity of cocoa imported from Brazil was slightly larger in 1938 than in 1937, but less than the record total of 196,000,000 pounds in 1936. The major part of the decrease in the value of imports from Brazil was in oil-bearing nuts and seeds and other of those products, imports of which have fluctuated greatly in recent years as a result of the changes in United States crop yields. Notable in this group are babassu nuts and other oil-bearing seeds, vegetable oils, hides and skins, and byproduct feeds of wheat. Imports of these commodities were in some instances negligible and in others only a fraction of the unusual totals in 1937. The United States had recovered by 1938 from the shortage in domestic fat and oil supplies occasioned by drought conditions in 1936. Imports of manganese, after increasing substantially in 1936 under the impetus of the trade agreement and expanding industrial output in the United States, dropped off in the succeeding years, and in 1938 were only a fourth as large in quantity as in 1936. Imports of canned beef and of oiticica oil were larger in quantity and in value in 1938 than in 1937. The demand for this oil, which has some of the same properties as tung oil, has been stimulated partly because of the difficulties encountered in bringing tung oil out of China. Table 12.-Principal Commodities in Trade of the United States With Brazil NOTE. Data for individual export items include only United States products. Import commodities are "general imports" in 1929 and 1932 and "imports for consumption" in 1937 and 1938. |