The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-07-24

Eds0n ness, the way is cleared for U. s. exporters and importers to trade with all other firms, numbering many times more than the firms now on the blacklist.
 Heretofore, there has been con- siderable confusion about what Lat in American firms U. s. nationals could trade with. There was, for instance, the general treasury or der freezing trade with all coun- tries of continental Europe and their nationals all over the world. That order was aimed primarily at i Germans and Italians, but it ap- piled also to Spaniards and Portu- guese nationals, even though they were doing business in the Argen- tine or Brazil. What American ex- porters were up against was an intricate job of research, determin- ing whether their agents in Latin America had any Spanish or Portu- guese or Italian or German blood in them. If so, trade with them was not permitted except under special license:
 ALL WON'T BE CONFUSION
 The new blacklist simplifies thiit rigamarole tremendously and 1t lists a lot of bothersome restrictions which had been interfering with the much-desired wartime expan- sion of inter- American trade. Trade with Latin America is now entirely unrestricted except for the 1900 firms on the blacklist and for those few essential defense items on which there is U. s export con- trol. It no longer makes any diff ference whether a firm in Latin America is controlled by Spaniards or Portuguese or even Dutchmen or Frenchmen. If their names are not on the blacklist, it's okay to go ahead and do business with them.
 To legalize this trade, Treasury hes issued a general license per- mitting all such transactions with out the prev:ousiy required specific license. This license applies to everything except purely financial transactions, such as transfers of funds. The purpose of this remain ing restriction Is to keep check on foreign exchange transactions and prevent a leak of foreign na- tionals' assets back to Europe.
 Under certain conditions, trade may even be permitted with firms on the blacklist, but only under i temporary license. Transactions not yet completed, contracts which have only a short time to run, and emer- gency transactions may be given license for limited operations In general, the lid is to be kept on tight and trade prohibited with any firm on the list, though the list iself can be changed by addi- tions or removals,
 HERE'S HOW IT WORKS
 To show how the new blacklist regulations operate. take the exam pie of a firm which has for many years been selling its goods to South America through a German company now on the blacklist Finding that it can no longer do business with its old agent, the U. S. firm is immediately confronted with the problem of finding a new outlet.
 If the U. s firm is small and cannot afford the expense of send- ing an executive to South Amer ica to investigate and sign up a new agent, 1t can get assistance through the commercial intelli- gence office in the Bureau of For eign and Domestic Commerce, U. s. Department of Commerce. This office has compiled list of hun dreds of thousands of firms all over the world.
 These firms are rated, in a kind of international Dunn and Brad- street listing, and their credit, repu- tation and general business rating are appraised, as well as the types of products which they handle and their other connections are cata- logued. It is from this master in- dex that American business men can get leads on new connections.
 U. s. consular agents in the for eign service of the Department of State are equipped to carry through further in establishing new con- tacts and agencies for American exporters. Tn general, all the field work in the other American repub- lies will be handled by the con- l slllar service.