Report of Independent Accountants
To the Trustees and Investors of
The U.S. Fixed Income Portfolio
In planning and performing our audit of the financial
statements of The U.S. Fixed Income Portfolio (the
portfolio) for the year ended October 31, 2000, we
considered its internal control, including control activities
for safeguarding securities, in order to determine our
auditing procedures for the purpose of expressing our
opinion on the financial statements and to comply with the
requirements of Form N-SAR, not to provide assurance on
internal control.
The management of the Portfolio is responsible for
establishing and maintaining internal control. In fulfilling
this responsibility, estimates and judgments by
management are required to assess the expected benefits
and related costs of controls. Generally, controls that are
relevant to an audit pertain to the entitys objective of
preparing financial statements for external purposes that are
fairly presented in conformity with generally accepted
accounting principles. Those controls include the
safeguarding of assets against unauthorized acquisition, use
or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in internal control, errors or
fraud may occur and not be detected. Also, projection of
any evaluation of internal control to future periods is
subject to the risk that it may become inadequate because
of changes in conditions or that the effectiveness of their
design and operation may deteriorate.
Our consideration of internal control would not necessarily
disclose all matters in internal control that might be
material weaknesses under standards established by the
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. A
material weakness is a condition in which the design or
operation of one or more of the internal control components
does not reduce to a relatively low level the risk that
misstatements caused by error or fraud in amounts that
would be material in relation to the financial statements
being audited may occur and not be detected within a
timely period by employees in the normal course of
performing their assigned functions. However, we noted
no matters involving internal control and its operation,
including controls for safeguarding securities, that we
consider to be material weaknesses as defined above as of
October 31, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of
management, the Trustees of the Portfolio and the
Securities and Exchange Commission and is not intended to
be and should not be used by anyone other than these
specified parties.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
New York, New York
December 21, 2000
To the Trustees and Investors of
The U.S. Fixed Income Portfolio
