Table 16.-Principal Commodities in Trade of the United States With Uruguay

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.

1 Less than 500.

2 Figures for 1929 and 1932 have not been adjusted for minor transfers in classifications of later years. Household refrigerators only.

VENEZUELA

United States exports to Venezuela in 1938 increased 13 percent in comparison with 1937 to a new high figure of $52,278,000, or more than double the 1936 total. From January through July the value of exports was 32 percent higher than in the corresponding period of 1937. The decline in the trade after July canceled some of the increase, for in each month from August through December the export value was below that in the corresponding month of 1937.

Continued expansion in Venezuelan petroleum production, which has been the most important factor affecting the general economic situation in that country for some years, provided the principal impetus for the growth in exports. There was notable work in the exploration and development of new fields in 1938, and petroleum production in

0.0.9143

1901-1905 1906-1910 | 1911-1915 | 1916-1920 | 1921-1925 1926-1930|1931-1935 | 1936-1940
Figure 12.-Trade of the United States With Venezuela.

Venezuela rose to a record total of approximately 187,370,000 barrels. Purchases of supplies by American petroleum companies in 1938 were, as usual, a large proportion of the United States export total.

Business activity in Venezuela and purchases in the United States were influenced in both 1937 and 1938 by the Government's publicworks program, which was scheduled to move forward in broader scope on July 1, 1938. Especially during the first half of 1938, importers' purchases of United States goods reflected the anticipated demands of this program. However, delay in carrying out the announced public-works projects, coupled with reduced returns for agricultural exports, slowed down commercial activity in Venezuela as well as imports of United States merchandise during the closing months of the year.

Agriculture in Venezuela continued depressed in 1938, principally by reason of low prices and adverse weather conditions affecting the important coffee and cocoa industries.

Export Commodities.

United States exports of machinery and vehicles to Venezuela in 1938 amounted to $25,016,000, as compared with $22,268,000 in 1937. These two groups of products comprised, as usual, nearly half the

export total. Metals and manufactures, the second largest export group in 1938, rose to a value of $10,145,000. Exports of edible and inedible animal products, vegetable food products, nonmetallic minerals, and chemicals also showed advances in 1938.

Import Commodities.

Direct merchandise imports from Venezuela amounted to $20,032,000 in 1938 as compared with $22,770,000 in 1937, a decrease of 12 percent. The decline was largely accounted for by smaller imports of goat and kid skins, cacao, and coffee.

About four-fifths of the direct imports consisted of 23,564,000 barrels of crude petroleum, imports of which decreased only moderately to a value of $16,541,000 in 1938. The fact should not be overlooked, however, that an additional part of the Venezuelan production is indirectly received in the United States. A large percentage of the petroleum products accredited in our statistics to the Netherlands West Indies is produced from Venezuelan crude shipped to Aruba and Curacao for refining.

Coffee, valued at $1,963,000, the second most important commodity imported directly from Venezuela, reached a relatively high figure in 1936, but declined materially in both 1937 and 1938. Imports of Venezuelan cacao declined from 14,875,000 pounds in 1937 to 10,064,000 pounds in 1938, with a drop in value from $1,695,000 to $759,000. The percentage decrease in quantity was greater than that for our total cacao imports, but the value decline was somewhat less than that for the total. Imports of goat and kid skins were also greatly reduced in 1938 as compared with the imports in other recent

years.

Table 17.-Principal Commodities in Trade of the United States With Venezuela 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.

Table 17.—Principal Commodities in Trade of the United States With Venezuela—

Continued

1 Not shown separately.

2 Figures for 1929 and 1932 have not been adjusted for minor transfers in classifications of later years. Less than 500.

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