THE AMERICAS: On the March

There is no doubt in my mind about the future of Latin America. Her people are on the march . . . While [they] will always have economic relations with Europe and other parts of the world, [their] firmest and most extensive relations can and should be with the U.S.

—Milton Eisenhower's Report to the President

Last week's cables carried a notable list of advances in Latin America's trade and commerce, chalked up with the aid of U.S. private enterprise:

¶ Sears, Roebuck bought a site in Lima for its first retail store in Peru, its 25th in Latin America. Sears stores are already doing well ($75 million gross last year) in Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil and Colombia.

¶ Coffee futures rose to their highest level (64¢ a Ib. for July delivery) in the 71-year history of the New York Coffee & Sugar Exchange. Led by giant Brazil, the 14 Latin American coffee republics may collect a record $1.35 billion for the crop marketed in the U.S. in 1953.

¶ Brazil cleared up the last of its $425 million U.S. commercial-debt backlog as Finance Minister Oswaldo Aranha's policy of ruthlessly cutting imports—powerfully aided by the coffee boom and a $300 million U.S. Export-Import Bank loan—began to pay off fast. Aranha also struck a deal to settle Brazil's £54 million arrears to Britain. Terms: £10 million to be paid at once, the balance in annual payments of at least £6 million.

¶ Chile, back in the open copper market after failing to get a high-price contract to sell its copper to the U.S. Government, sold 10,000 tons of its 100,000-ton hoard at the going U.S. price of 30¢ a Ib.

¶ The first seamless steel tubing ever manufactured in Latin America rolled from a brand-new $20 million plant built just outside São Paulo by Brazil's seven fast-rising millionaire Jafet brothers (TIME, Jan. 26, 1953). When the plant is running at top capacity, its output should save Brazil from $20 to $25 million annually in dollar exchange.

¶ The Argentine government announced that Willys Motors, Inc. will form a new company in Buenos Aires to assemble jeeps and other Willys products. The deal is one of the first initiated under President Perón's revamped foreign-investment law permitting new investors to withdraw up to 8% of their profits annually.