No. 606.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. Child.
Washington, July 1, 1887.
Sir: I have received your No. 25 of May 10, 1887, transmitting to the Department a copy of a new law, agreed to by the committee of representatives of the treaty powers in Siam, for the regulation of the importation and sale of spirituous liquors in that country. You therein inclose a copy of a note from the Siamese foreign office of April 30 last, expressing the hope that the law will be acceptable to the United States, and recommend that the assent of this Department be given to its going into operation on the 1st of September next, the time suggested in the note of Prince Devawongse for that purpose.
It is regretted that there is an ambiguity not noticed in your dispatch, in section 4 of the law, which, if correctly interpreted by the Department, would preclude its assenting to the law, on the ground that it violates the provisions of the treaty concluded between the United States and Siam, on the 14th of May, 1884, for the regulation of the liquor traffic in the latter country.
Article I of this treaty provides that” beer and wines maybe imported and sold by citizens of the United States on payment of the same duty as that levied by the Siamese excise laws upon similar articles manufactured in Siam, but the duty on imported beer and wines shall in no case exceed 10 per cent, ad valorem.”
Article V of the treaty contains the following stipulation:
Citizens of the United States shall at all times enjoy the same rights and privileges in regard to the importation and sale of spirits, beer, wines, and spirituous liquors in Siam as the subjects of the most favored nation; and spirits, beer, wines, and spirituous liquors coming from the United States shall enjoy the same privileges in all respects as similar articles coming from any other country the most favored in this respect.
These two articles place a precise limit to the duty which may be imposed by the Government in Siam upon beer and wines imported and sold by the citizens of the United States and guarantied most favored nation treatment, both for citizens of the United States in respect to the importation and sale of spirits, beer, and wines, and for spirits, beer, wines, and spirituous liquors coming from the United States.
Section 4 of the law reads as follows:
No spirituous liquors, excepting wine and beer actually made in Europe, shall be consumed, sold, or exposed for sale, in any city, town, or place in the Kingdom of Siam, unless there shall have been previously paid in respect of them either the import duty or the excise duty chargeable as hereinafter specified. Such duties shall be chargeable at the rate and on the scale following, that is to say: Eight ticals and twenty-four atts for every te of twenty tanans of one hundred cubic nins containing under 50 per cent, of absolute alcohol by volume (equal to $1.20 for every gallon, 26½ cents per liter), and proportional sums in every case for higher quantities and different alcoholic strength. No beers or wines of any kind shall be consumed, sold, or exposed for sale in any city, town, or place in the Kingdom of Siam, unless there shall have been previously paid in respect of them either an import duty of 5 per cent, on the value thereof, or an excise duty to the same amount, according to the detailed scale hereto annexed in schedule 17.
As the Department reads this section it contains a palpable discrimination against beer and wines manufactured in the United States. Instead of being subjected to the ad valorem duty of 5 per cent, they would be assessed at the rate of duty charged on other spirituous liquors, [Page 974] while wines and beers made in Europe would pay only the ad valorem duty above specified. Such a discrimination this Government could not assent to, especially in view of the explicit and unmistakable provisions of the treaty of 1884 forbidding any discrimination on this subject.
You will therefore bring the objectionable features of section 4 of the law to the attention of the Siamese minister of foreign affairs, and say that while this Government recognizes the propriety and necessity of proper regulation by the Government of Siam of the importation and sale of spirituous liquors in that Kingdom, the Government of the United States can not recognize the enforcement of provisions of law which conflict with the conventional obligations of the Government of His Majesty to that of the United States. Beyond this point this Department is not disposed to make any objections to a law intended to preserve the good order of the community, and which has the approval of the representatives of the treaty powers.
I am, etc.,