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 1683 56 STAT.] URUGUAY-RECIPROCAL TRADE-JULY 21, 1942 In conclusion, the Uruguayan representatives have asserted the decision of their Government to make effective in full the stipulations referred to above as soon as it becomes possible for Uruguay to convert its sterling balances into free currencies. I confirm in this manner the statements of the Uruguayan representatives, and I reaffirm the earnest hope of the Uruguayan Government that it may be possible to erect in the near future a system of multilateral trade among all nations, free from the impediments and restrictions which prevent its normal maintenance and necessary expansion. Accept, Mr. Ambassador, the renewed assurances of my highest consideration. ALBERTO GUANI The Honorable WILLIAM DAWSON, Ambassador Extraordinaryand Plenipotentiary of the United States of America. The UruguayanMinister of Foreign Affairs to the American Ambassador MINISTRY OF FOREIGN RELATIONS MONTEVIDEO, July 21, 1942 MR. AMBASSADOR: I have the honor to refer to the conversations between representa- tives of the Government of Uruguay and the Government of the United States of America, in connection with the trade agreement signed this day, in regard to trade relations between Uruguay and neighboring countries. During the course of these conversations the Uruguayan repre- sentatives have referred (1) to Resolution IXXX of the Seventh International Conference of American States at Montevideo, approved December 24, 1933, recommending the study of a contractual formula for tariff preferences to contiguous or neighboring countries and, pur- suant thereto, to the recommendation of the Inter-American Financial and Economic Advisory Committee on September 18, 1941 that any such tariff preferences, in order to be an instrument for sound pro- motion of trade, should be made effective through trade agreements embodying tariff reductions or exemptions; that the parties to such agreements should reserve the right to reduce or eliminate the customs duties on like imports from other countries; and that any such regional tariff preferences should not be permitted to stand in the way of any broad program of economic reconstruction involving the reduction of tariffs and the scaling down or elimination of tariff and other trade preferences with a view to the fullest possible development of inter- national trade on a multilateral unconditional most-favored-nation basis; and (2) to Convention VIII, Final Minutes of the regional conference of the Plata River countries at Montevideo, January 27 to February 6, 1941, whereby the Governments of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay have agreed reciprocally not to claim for themselves, because of the most-favored-nation clause, the exemptions and facili-

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