Roca-Runciman Agreement

Roca-Runciman Agreement, a three-year trade pact between Argentina and Great Britain, signed in May 1933, that guaranteed Argentina a fixed share in the British meat market and eliminated tariffs on Argentine cereals. In return, Argentina agreed to restrictions with regard to trade and currency exchange, and it preserved Britain’s commercial interests in the country. It was signed in London by Argentine Vice Pres. Julio Roca and the British government’s representative, Lord Runciman. In 1936 the pact was renewed for three more years.

The British had been the chief foreign investors in Argentina, with more than 60 percent of their investments in railroads. At the time the trade pact was concluded in 1936, Roca promised the British that Argentina would not construct highways to compete with the railways. But when British companies failed to replace obsolete equipment and improve service, Pres. Agustín Pedro Justo (served 1932–38) launched a program that increased the number of highways in Argentina by 100 percent. In the late 1940s and early ’50s, Pres. Juan Perón’s program to free Argentina from foreign debts and foreign ownership and to promote industrialization achieved some initial success but eventually led to economic retrogression.