[Inclosure.]
memorandum.
By section 14 of an act approved June 26, 1884, “to remove certain
burdens on the American merchant marine, and encourage the American
foreign carrying trade, and for other purposes,” it is enacted:
“That, in lieu of the tax on tonnage of 30 cents per ton per annum
heretofore imposed by law, a duty of 3 cents per ton, not to exceed
in the aggregate 15 cents per ton in any one year, is hereby imposed
at each entry on all vessels which shall be entered in any port of
the United States, from any foreign port or place in North America,
Central America, the West India Islands, the Bahama Islands, the
Bermuda Islands, or the Sandwich Islands, or Newfoundland; and a
duty of 6 cents per ton, not to exceed 30 cents per ton per annum,
is hereby imposed at each entry upon all vessels which shall be
entered in the United States from any other foreign ports.”
Article VIII of the treaty concluded between Sweden and Norway and
the United States of America, July 4, 1827, reads as follows:
“The two high contracting parties engage not to impose upon the
navigation between their respective territories, in the vessels of
either, any tonnage or other duties, of any kind or denomination,
which shall be higher or other than those which shall be imposed on
every other navigation except that which they have reserved to
themselves, respectively, by the sixth article of the present
treaty.”
By virtue of the said article, a higher tonnage-tax than that imposed
by section 14 of the above-cited act of June 26, 1884, on vessels
arriving from ports or places in the countries therein mentioned,
that is to say, 3 cents per ton at each entry, not to exceed in the
aggregate 15 cents per ton in any one year, cannot, after the
entering into force of said act, be imposed upon vessels arriving in
any port of the United States from any port or place in Sweden or
Norway.
Washington, June 17,
1885.
