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^efattd t6e 7fttwi&et4< &4f HARRY
STENERSON
U n i t e d S l a t e s p r o v i d e s l a r g e s t m a r k e t f o r c r u d e c a s t o r oil from B r a z i l , a s it is a n i m p o r t a n t r a w m a t e r i a l i n m a n y c h e m i c a l process i n d u s t r i e s , n o t a b l y for n y l o n , l u b r i c a n t s , a n d p l a s t i e i z c r s "PREPARATIONS are getting under way in Brazil for large-scale production and export of crude castor oil for which the United States provides the biggest market. Imported Brazilian castor beans crushed in the United States have provided in the past 10 .years most of the castor oil used in our domestic production of artificial leather, nylon, textiles, lubricating oils, plasticizers, hydraulic fluids, drying oils for paints, and other products. Brazil has' long believed that the most economic development of its castor bean crop could only be achieved through increasing extensively local processing of beans and export of oil instead of beans. Lowered United States tariffs will now enable Brazil to begin production of crude castor oil, a semimanufactured product which will not compete with the finished products of United States refiners, sulfonators, or dehydrators. The tariff concessions to Brazil are in keeping with the United States theory of a greater international trade. The lower tariff will permit Brazil to export, raw oil to United States refiners and thus accumulate larger dollar credits here for the purchase of more United States products than the Latin American country can now buy. The recent acceptance of the Geneva trade agreements by Brazil provides the opportunity for that country to carry out its hopes and was the signal for carefully planned local bean processing projects to move forward toward reality. The reciprocal trade agreement reduces by three cents a pound United States import duty on castor oil, among other concessions to Brazil in return for reductions in Brazilian tariffs on such products as electric motors. Brazilian interests believe that they can export quality castor oil to the United States comparable to the oil produced in the United States from Brazilian beans and at a price competitive with those of United States crushers, now that tariff barriers on the oil have been lowered here. Brazil Oiticica, Inc., major producer and exporter of Brazilian oiticica oil, may be one of the organizations marketing Brazilian processed castor oil in the United States. New crop beans are just now coming to market in Brazil. The forecast is for a crop in Sao Paulo, Brazil's main castor bean producing area, 29,000 tons larger than in 1947 and
