The Roca-Runciman Treaty was a commercial agreement between Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 and Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 signed in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 by the Vice President of Argentina, Julio Argentino Roca, Jr.

Julio Argentino Roca, Jr.

Julio Argentino Pascual Roca Funes was an Argentine politician and diplomat.He was born to Clara Funes and General Julio Roca, who would become President of Argentina and dominate national politics for a generation after 1880...

, and the president of the British Board of Trade

Board of Trade

The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...

, Sir Walter Runciman

Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford

Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford PC was a prominent Liberal, later National Liberal politician in the United Kingdom from the 1900s until the 1930s.-Background:...

, the British envoy.

As a byproduct of Black Tuesday and the Wall Street Crash of 1929

Wall Street Crash of 1929

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...

, Great Britain, principal economic partner of Argentina in the 1920s and 1930s, took measures to protect the meat supply market in the Commonwealth

Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

. At the Imperial Preference

Imperial Preference

Imperial Preference was a proposed system of reciprocally-levelled tariffs or free trade agreements between the dominions and colonies within the British Empire...

 negotiations in Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, bowing to pressure, mainly from Australia and South Africa, decided to severely curtail imports of Argentine beef

Argentine beef

Beef is a key component of traditional Argentine cuisine.-Current situation:Argentina has the world's second highest consumption rate of beef, at 55 kg a year per capita. In 2006, livestock farmers kept between 50 and 55 million head of cattle, mostly in the fertile pastures of the Pampas...

. The idea was to enact monthly cuts of 5% during the first year of the agreement. The plan provoked an immediate outcry in Buenos Aires, and the government dispatched Vice-president Roca and a team of negotiators to London. On 1 May 1933 they concluded a bilateral treaty known as the Roca-Runciman Treaty. The Argentine Senate

Argentine Senate

The Argentine Senate is the upper house of the Argentine National Congress. It has 72 senators: three for each province and three for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires...

 ratified this agreement by Law #11,693.

The treaty ensured beef export

Export

The term export is derived from the conceptual meaning as to ship the goods and services out of the port of a country. The seller of such goods and services is referred to as an "exporter" who is based in the country of export whereas the overseas based buyer is referred to as an "importer"...

 quota

Quota share

A quota share is a specified number or percentage of the allotment as a whole , that is prescribed to each individual entity ....

s equivalent to the levels sold in 1932 (the lowest point in the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

), strengthening the commercial ties between Argentina and Great Britain.

The most salient points of the agreement were:

1. Argentina was assured of an export quota of no less than 390,000 metric tonnes
   Tonne
   The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
   
    of refrigerated beef. 85% of the beef exports were to be made through foreign meat packers. The United Kingdom "would be agreeable to permit" the participation of Argentine meat packers of up to 15%.
2. Argentina would give to British companies "a benevolent treatment towards insuring the greatest economic development of the country and the deserved protection to the interests of these companies."
3. As long as there were currency controls in Argentina (limiting the sending of money abroad), everything that Great Britain would pay for purchases in Argentina, could be returned to the country deducting a percentage from payments to the foreign debt.
4. Argentina would keep free of duties imports of coal
   Coal
   Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
   
    and other goods imported from Great Britain at the time, furthermore vowing to buy 100% of their coal needs in Great Britain.
5. Argentina agreed not to increase import duties to all British goods, and not to reduce the fees paid to the British railroads in Argentina plus exemption
   Tax exemption
   Various tax systems grant a tax exemption to certain organizations, persons, income, property or other items taxable under the system. Tax exemption may also refer to a personal allowance or specific monetary exemption which may be claimed by an individual to reduce taxable income under some...
   
   s from certain labor legislation, such as the funding of pension programs.

Vice-president Roca condensed the spirit of the negotiations in the phrase: "It can be said that Argentina is an integral economic part of the British Empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

". The treaty had strong political repercussions in Argentina later triggering a conflict from the denunciations of National Representative Lisandro de la Torre

Lisandro de la Torre

Lisandro de la Torre was an Argentine politician, born in Rosario, province of Santa Fe.De la Torre became a lawyer in 1890. His thesis about municipalities and communes, as well as other works of his, gave rise to the idea of municipal autonomy in Argentina, which was included in the Argentine...

.

From this treaty Britain received the greater benefits. For only the promise of purchasing Argentine beef at the reduced levels of the Depression era, Argentina agreed to reduce tariffs on almost 350 British goods to the rates of 1930 and to refrain from imposing duties on main imports such as coal, as already mentioned.

as quoted in "Argentina in the Twentieth Century" by David Rock (London 1975) pg 115