OCR Text |
Show 1QIHS CLINCH POSTWAR TRADE Germans Getting Firm Grip on Commerce in Republic Repub-lic of Argentina. BUENOS AIRES, Nov. 9. (By the Associated Press.) The high value of the American dollar as a medium of exchange ex-change and the low value of the German mark are enabling German houses to sell goods here cheaper than they did before the war Their prices are so far below" those of American and other allied coun-. tries that, for the moment, there is no possibility of competition. The Germans are experiencing little difficulty in getting their goods to South America. German machines of a certain class are selling at 100 per cent above what they did before the war, yet they are 200 pesos cheaper to the Argentine buyer because the mark is cheap. To guard themselves against possible shipping delays when buying German goods, Argentine importers are buying marks today and keeping them to pay their bills with when the goods arrive, so that an increase in the value of the mark will not affect their purchasing price. It has been reported here that German exporters cannot ship metals, yet their salesmen are offering copper tubes In competition with United States salesmen and are getting orders because they promise prom-ise shipment "when possible," and in the meantime the Argentine purchaser has only to go to his bank and buy marks to cover the price of his order and he then gets his goods at today's price, regardless of the value of the mark when the goods are received. Several American representatives here have written to their principals that it is Impossible to take orders for American goods as long as the dollar is valuable ahd the mark is not. |