THE AMERICAS: Vote for a Common Market

Caught up in a spirit of compromise, the U.S. softened hard policies of long standing last week as the economic conference of the Organization of American States ended in Buenos Aires. The U.S. agreed to:

¶Consult on commodity price fluctuations and surplus disposal.

¶Study the possibility of a Latin American Bank.

¶Work toward the gradual establishment of a regional Latin American market.

Despite the U.S. cooperation, some of the delegates were disappointed. They had expected that the three-week conference would produce a binding, final economic treaty. Not until the idea of such a short-order treaty was shelved did the conference get down to its real work: the drawing up of a list of principles to serve as a basis for future planning. The result was a ten-point "Declaration of Buenos Aires" and 39 other resolutions stressing technical matters.

Some back-home newspapers blasted the conference. "Fiasco!" snorted Brazil's Press Lord Assis Chateaubriand. But reactions often combined realism with optimism. In Uruguay, the daily El Plata joked about the U.S. reluctance to go in for Latin American giveaways. "The U.S. knows only too well the similarity between Latin American economic administration and sacks with holes or barrels without bottoms." On vacation in Newport, President Eisenhower examined the conference's results, reflected most delegates' reactions by calling them "an outstanding statement of the principles and objectives of inter-American economic cooperation."