BARTER PACT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 December 1938, Page 7

BARTER PACT

MEXICO AND GERMANY OIL ,TO BE EXCHANGED FOR MANUFACTURERS. FAVOURABLE POSITION GAINED BY REICH. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. NEW YORK. December 9. The Mexican Government has signed an agreement by which 17.000.000 dollars’ worth of petroleum from the expropriated American and British properties will be bartered for German merchandise, machinery and other products in 1939, says the Mexico City correspondent of the “New York Times.” A cash arrangement was completed by which the Germany navy will be supplied largely with Mexican Govern-ment-produced petrol and oil.

This vast barter arrangement, the largest since the expropriation, is expected further to reduce British and American sales to Mexico, which already are much below their former level.

It is not completely inconceivable, the correspondent adds, that Germany may now take first place in Mexican trade.

It is stressed in Mexico City that Mexican petrol and oil had previous been extensively used by the British Navy.

The cash that Mexico will obtain is believed to total 8,000,000 dollars and an unspecified quantity of blocked marks.

It is understood that Germany will obtain petroleum considerably below the world market price of' approximately a dollar’ a barrel.