FOREIGN TRADE OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1938 Table 30.-Principal Commodities in Trade of the United States With Finland 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. 3, 697 3, 130 114 17 89 102 89 128 120 1, 191 209 410 391 1 United States statistics include only goods shipped direct; those United States goods reaching Finland via third countries are shown only in the Finnish trade statistics, according to which imports into Finland from the United States totaled 893,549,000 marks, or $19,252,000 (U. S. currency) in 1938, compared with $18,819,000 in 1937. 2 Less than 500. 3 Figures for 1929 and 1932 have not been adjusted for minor transfers in classifications of later years. 4 Ton of 2,240 pounds in 1929 and 1932; ton of 2,000 pounds, air-dry weight, thereafter. 5 Not shown separately. POLAND AND DANZIG The export trade of the United States with Poland in 1938 continued relatively large in value (only 6 percent lower than in 1937), principally because that country obtained from the United States certain metals and other products necessary to carry forward its program of self-sufficiency and rearmament. Exports of steel scrap, though totaling about half the figure of nearly $5,000,000 recorded in 1937, was much higher than in other recent years. Copper exports valued at $2,500,000 were decidedly larger than in 1937, and there were also relatively large increases in 1938 in metalworking machinery, motortrucks and busses, passenger automobiles, and aircraft. The export total in 1938 continued, however, much lower in comparison with the values recorded in the late 1920's. While in that earlier period a much larger part of the trade than in recent years moved into Poland through bordering countries (to which it was credited in the United States statistics), the Polish statistics show an average annual figure for imports of United States goods of approxi mately $40.000.000 during the period 1926-30, in comparison with somewhat less than $30.000.000 in 1938. For some years Poland progressively tended to limit its impos from nonclearing countries to indispensable goods, as a result of recurrent exchange difficulties. Moreover, after Poland instituted the bilateral method of trading with foreign countries, certain com modities formerly supplied by the United States were purchased elsewhere. While raw cotton continued to be the principal United States export to Poland and Danzig in 1938, this commodity constituted only about two-fifths of the total exports, whereas it represented almost three-fourths of the total in some previous years. Since Poland's chief export products are similar to domestic products, United States imports from Poland have always been relatively small. Purchases increased, however, during the period from 1934 to 1937; and, despite the decline in 1938 as compared with 1937, the year's total was more than twice the 1934 figure. Imports of bazley malt began to increase in 1934, the year following the repeal of prohibition in the United States; and in the period 1935-37 these averaged over 40,000,000 pounds annually. Imports of barley malt deciñed in 1938 to less than 5,000,000 pounds. Imports of Polish canned ham began to increase in 1935, after the 1934 drought in our Midwestern States, and reached a yearly volume of over 32.000.000 pounds in 1937. Ham imports continued large in quantity in 1938, though low prices caused a reduction in value. The influence of the business recession in the United States and the increase in our own agricultural production was similarly reflected in reduced imports of leather, undressed furs, bristles, feathers, barley, clover seed, sugar-beet seed, and various other items from Poland in 1938. In the aggregate, the changes in the various imports resulted in a decline of 31 percent in the value of our total imports from Poland as compared with 1937. Only a few imports from Poland increased in quantity and value in 1938. These included molasses (not for human consumption) and pickled vegetables. Table 31.—Principal Commodities in Trade of the United States With Poland and Danzig NOTE.-Date for individual export items include only United States products. Import commodities are “general imports" in 1933 and imports for consumption" beginning in 1954. FOREIGN TRADE OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1938 Table 31.-Principal Commodities in Trade of the United States With Poland and Danzig-Continued 2 Not shown separately. PORTUGAL The substantial increase recorded for United States trade with Portugal in 1937 was followed in 1938 by a decrease which brought both the export and the import total down to approximately the 1935 level. Exports in 1938 were valued at $10,950,000, as with $10,837,000 in 1935 and $15,091,000 in 1937, whereas general compared $8,848,000 in 1937. and tries as a result of the civil war in that country, there was a shift to On account of the difficulties experienced by Spanish export indusPortugal from Spain in 1936 and 1937 for a number of products which are indigenous to both areas. influenced by the business recession in the United States and in some In 1938 the flow of commodities was instances by a shift to other sources of supply. = In exports the decline in 1938 was in part accounted for by smaller shipments of motortrucks (which were unusually large in 1937) and by a reduction in shipments of United States cotton. Portugal obtained a larger proportion of its cotton imports elsewhere in 1938 than in 1937. Owing to below-normal wheat production in Portugal, a considerable amount of wheat was imported by that country in 1938, nearly half of which was supplied by the United States. The following represent the principal United States exports to Portugal, listed in order of importance in 1938, with 1937 figures in parentheses: Wheat, 1,818,000 bushels, valued at $1,857,000 (none in 1937); petroleum and petroleum products, $1,513,000 ($1,527,000); raw cotton, 27,215 bales at $1,464,000 (41,941 bales, $2,729,000); automobiles, including parts $2,224,000 ($5,758,000), of which motor trucks and busses were 1,496 units at $1,152,000 (5,247 units, $4,540,000); machinery and vehicles other than automobiles, $1,575,000 ($1,793,000); leaf tobacco, 4,728,000 pounds at $863,000 (4,149,000 pounds, $723,000); and tin plate, 1,911,000 pounds at $88,000 (26,483,000 pounds at $1,185,000 in 1937). Principal imports in 1938 included the following: Unmanufactured cork (including waste and shavings), 89,390,000 pounds valued at $2,016,000 (204,683,000 pounds, $5,507,000 in 1937); sardines in oil, 3,852,000 pounds at $706,000 (4,107,000 pounds, $658,000 in 1937); olive oil, inedible, 6,613,000 pounds at $379,000 (2,239,000 pounds, $208,000 in 1937); and wines, 123,112 gallons at $314,000 (123,767 gallons, $336,000 in 1937). Several principal imports in 1937 were quite small in 1938. These included coffee (a colonial product), which aggregated 5,796,000 pounds valued at $401,000 in 1937 and 282,000 pounds at $20,000 in 1938; carpet wool, which totaled 1,559,000 pounds at $348,000 in 1937, and 272,000 pounds at $43,000 in 1938; pyrites, 21,725 tons at $109,000 in 1937 and 30 tons at $306 in 1938; ergot, 166,495 pounds at $208,000 in 1937 and $1,188 pounds at $102,000 in 1938; and crude beeswax, 938,000 pounds at $248,000 in 1937 and 69,000 tons at $15,000 in 1938. SPAIN Since the outbreak of the civil war in Spain, the export trade of the United States with that country has been restricted to a relatively few commodities, which even in the aggregate, are small in value. Whereas exports to Spain totaled $41,303,000 in 1935 (the last calendar year preceding the outbreak of the war in July of 1936), they reached only $6,012,000 in 1937 and $12,266,000 in 1938. The principal exports in 1938 included petroleum products, motortrucks, tin plate, fertilizers, and wheat flour; while the 1937 trade included principally petroleum products, fertilizer materials, pig iron, aircraft, and wheat. The import trade has also fallen off sharply, but by a smaller percentage than the export trade. The value of imports from Spain was $20,021,000 in 1935, $13,806,000 in 1937, and $9,157,000 in 1938. Principal imports from Spain in 1938, as in other recent years, included olives, olive oil, wines, cork, and iron pyrites. Compared with 1935, the imports of olives in brine were higher in value though smaller in quantity, and wine imports were larger in both quantity and value. While imports of cork and pyrites increased in 1937, they again dropped off sharply in 1938, and imports of olive oil, almonds, sheepskins, goatskins, and quicksilver in 1938 were only fractionally as large as in 1935. Table 32.-Principal Commodities in Trade of the United States With Spain 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. |