A blow to Germany’s hopes of economic rehabilitation was struck today when President Roosevelt, at his regular press conference, announced that the German cotton barter deal sponsored by George N. Peek, head of the Export-Import Bank, was dead.
The President explained that the German proposal involved the anti-dumping provisions of the Federal regulations regarding barter agreements. American importers feared violation of anti-dumping laws of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act if the agreement to take goods under the terms of the proposed agreement were consummated.
The death blow to the proposed barter agreement, which local observers had been predicting for the past few weeks, was dealt by the legal experts in the Treasury Department, who ruled that the agreement would violate Federal provisions. It was this report, the President indicated, that prompted his final decision.
SOUTHERNERS FAVORED PACT
The sentiment in favor of the cotton barter pact originated in the desire of Southern producers to sell cotton to Germany, which in 1933 purchased ten per cent of the American crop. By the proposal Germany would have given twenty-five per cent of the pay
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
