The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-18
LATIN TRADE WITH
 AME RIGA GROWING
Demand For Products In South America Is Show
 ing Stead Gain

NEW YORK, Nov. 17.-Trade of this country with Latin America will be nearly s2,OO0. .00O,O 900 in 1923, against $75O ,oO0, 900 in the year pre< ceding the war This growth occurs especially in the exports, which will total about S675,0O0, 900 in 1923 against $2S2,000,000 in the fiscal year 1914, all of which immediately pre- ceded the war. The share which shipments to that section Of the globe now form of our total exports is much larger than in the year prior to the war and will be approximately IS per cent in 1923 against about l2 per cent in 1914.
 Still another encourag ging factor in the figures of trade with Latin America, as pointed out in survey by the National City bank, Is found in the fact that the official records show that these countries are taking a much larger share of their imports from the United States than before the war.
 Half Of Imports From U. g.
 Taking the group as a whole, their own official figures for the latest available year, 1921, show that they their imports from this country, against 24.S per cent in the year be- fore the war. The official figures of the 20 countries forming the group show adds the bank, $S34,000,0O0 of merchandise imported from the United States in 1921, the latest ! available year, as against $319, 100000 in the year immediately preceding the war, an increase of more than 150 per cent in stated value, while the share which the United States merchandise formed of their imports
 
 per cent in the year before the war.
 This startling increase in percent age which we are now supplying Of the imports entering Latin America" comments the bank, "is apparent in all parts of the area. Mexico, for ex- ample, took 4S per cent of her inn ports from the United States in 1913 1913 only 53 per cent of her total im- ports and in 1921 75 per cent; Argen- tina took 15 per cent of her imports from us in 1913 and 2S per cent in 1921. In Brazil the share drawn from the United States jumped from 16 per cent in 1913 to 31 per cent In 1921. In Uruguay imports from the UrsSed States advanced from 12 per cent to 26 per cent, and in the case of the Dominican Republic advanced from 62 per cent to S4 per cent.
 | so Per Cent Manufactures.
 This big growth in our exports to ! Latin America and the equally big | increase in the percentage which we are supplying of their imports is es- l pecially interesting. in view of the 1 fact that manufactures form a very {! large proportion of the merchandise which they import In the move
 ments from the United States to South and Central American coun- 1 tries manufactures form about 80 per cent of the total, though in the case | of our immediate neighbor, Cuba, where sugar and tobacco command the activities of the entire industrial 1 population, foodstuffs form a larger 1 proportion of our exports thereto l than in the other sections of Latin America; yet manufactures form a very large percentage of the exports to that island despite it's demands for 1 the meat, dairy products and bread | stuffs of our farms.
 l "All of this merchandise sent to l Latin America is paid for in the nat ural products of these countries, for our imports from L&tin America are l always, and quite naturally. greater l than our exports to them. They sup 1 ply us, a temperate zone country, with their tropical products includ l ing manufacturing material and l foodstuffs, while they take their pay in these natural products in manu- l factures."