818.51/991: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Costa Rica (Scotten)
207. Your 267, May 23, 2 p.m. The letters of the Minister of Finance to Mr. Pierson and to the Minister in Washington were carefully considered both in the Department and the Export-Import Bank, and the Department cannot recommend to the Export-Import Bank that such proposal be adopted. This matter was also fully discussed with the Minister while he was in Washington and turned down at that time.
The Minister is in effect asking that we finance a budget deficit for 18 years. The 9 years offered in the Department’s 195 is excessive for this type of credit. As to the speed of utilization of the credit, if the Congress of Costa Rica will approve the necessary enabling legislation, either type of proposal can be implemented at once. The Government of the United States has never offered financial assistance to anyone on terms as liberal as those contained in the Department’s 195. Please inform the Finance Minister accordingly.
The Department is unable to understand the insistence of the Costa Rican Government on the proposal to incorporate the $1,000,000 credit in the existing $4,600,000 road credit. Due to the radically different uses to which the new credit would be put, an extensive revision of the old contract and submission of the amended text to the Costa Rican Congress would apparently be necessary in any case.