Trading with the Reds

South America's trade with countries behind the Iron Curtain is on the rise. Items:

P: Argentina and Brazil announced new commercial agreements with Hungary, increasing to seven the number of such bilateral pacts these two countries have recently negotiated with members of the Communist-dominated world.

P:Argentina offered for sale to farmers 2,700 Zetor tractors just acquired from Czechoslovakia.

P: Brazilians, who will soon welcome a Rumanian mission to Rio, reportedly discussed a $90 million barter deal with East Germans last week at the Leipzig Fair.

P: Argentine experts bargained for a tradepact with an East German mission in Buenos Aires. A delegation from Red China is expected next month.

P: The Argentines claimed that last August's $150 million agreement to exchange farm products for Soviet coal, iron, steel and machinery has already been more than half-fulfilled.

As long as Latin America's exports to the Communists are limited to so-called nonstrategic goods, U.S. officials are not inclined to get too alarmed about them. But recently, high officials in Argentina, Brazil and Chile have urged all-out expansion of trade behind the Iron Curtain. Chile has been sounded out on a Russian offer to buy 100,000 tons of the country's copper surplus. Some Chileans questioned whether the offer was made in good faith or just for propaganda purposes. Either way, it served the long-range Soviet aim of stirring up trouble between the U.S. and Latin America.

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