Writing a Claim Letter. (Marks 05 – Time required: 25 minutes) When President Carlos Menem of Argentina took office in 1989, he and his economy minister Domingo Covallo decided that competition from foreign producers would stimulate Argentine businesses to provide better products at competitive prices. To the delight of Argentine shoppers, the import tariffs were lowered and goods began pouring in from all over the world: calculators and copy machines, scissors and automobiles, bicycles, toothpicks – and peaches. When Menem’s new policies took effect, California peach growers responded eagerly to the opening of the new market. Individual growers banded into the California Peach Growers Association to ship their fruit to Edcadassa, the Argentine firm that oversees all imported goods while they await customs clearance at Ezeiza international airport. As supervisor of the Argentine project for the growers association, you were extremely pleased with success of the first few shipments; everything had gone smoothly. Then word came back from angry Argentine buyers that the fresh Californian peaches they had expected arrived at their stores ready for the garbage bin. They refused to pay for the rotten fruit, and your growers lost $ 50,000. You made inquiries and discovered that Edcadassa was overwhelmed by the level of imported goods flowing into Argentina, (an average of 150 tons a day, compared with 60 tons two years before). Your peach shipment was lost in the confusion, and by the time it was cleared through customs, three weeks late, the peaches were already rotten. Since you had shipped the fruit when it was at the perfect stage to make the journey, await the normal customs delay, and ripen gently in the supermarkets of Buenos Aires, you believe the responsibility for the shipment’s destruction rests with Edcadassa.