Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 3, 1888, Part I
No. 521.
Mr. White
to Mr. Bayard.
London, May 14, 1888. (Received May 26.)
Sir: I have the honor to acquaint you that on the 12th instant the delegates to the international sugar conference from Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy, Holland, and Russia signed at the foreign office the “protoeole de clôture,” [Page 718] of which and of the “projet de convention” annexed thereto, I inclose three copies herewith.
I shall have the honor of addressing to you a few observations with respect to this document and to those procès-verbal of the late session of the conference, which have not yet been forwarded, as soon as I shall have received the latter.
I have, etc.,
Final protocol.
The undersigned, delegates of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Russia, have re-assembled at London on the 5th day of April, 1888, for the purpose of preparing a draught of a convention having for its object the abolition of bounties on the exportation of sugar.
After the deliberations, of which an account is given in the reports of the sessions, they have adopted the draught of a convention, which is appended to this protocol, and which they pledge themselves to submit to the consideration of their respective Governments, with the reservations mentioned in the inclosed reports.
They pledge themselves, moreover, to request their respective Governments to communicate to the Government of Her Britannic Majesty their opinions concerning the draught of a convention before the 5th of July next.
Her Britannic Majesty’s Government proposes to convoke, on the 16th of August, at the latest, a conference of plenipotentiaries to sign the convention.
Done at London, May the 12th, 1888.
Draught of a convention.
The high contracting parties, desiring to secure, by reciprocal engagements, the entire abolition of bounties, either open or disguised, on the exportation of sugar, have resolved to conclude a convention to that effect, and have appointed as their plenipotentiaries, to wit:
- Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland: the Right Honorable Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne Cecil, Marquis of Salisbury, Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne, Baron Cecil, Peer of the United Kingdom, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Member of Her Majesty’s Most Honorable Privy Council, Her Majesty’s Chief Secretary of State in the Department of Foreign Affairs, etc., and Baron Henry de Worms, member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Colonial Under-Secretary of State, etc.;
- His Majesty the Emperor of Germany, King of Prussia;
- His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, etc., and Apostolic King of Hungary;
- His Majesty the King of the Belgians; Baron Solvyns, his envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary; Mr. Guillaume, director-general of his ministry of finance; and Mr. Du Jardin, inspector-general of his ministry of finance;
- His Majesty the King of Denmark; Mr. de Barner, his chamberlain, inspector-general of custom-houses;
- His Majesty the King of Spain, and in his name the Queen Regent of the Kingdom; Mr. del Mazo, his ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary; Mr. Batanero, deputy, and Mr. Dupuy de Lôme, his minister resident;
- The President of the French Republic, Mr. Waddington, his ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, and Mr. Sans Leroy, deputy;
- His Majesty the King of Italy, the Chevalier Catalani, his chargé d’affaires;
- His Majesty the King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxemburg;
- His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, the Chevalier de Staal, his ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, and Mr. Kamensky, his actual counsellor of state;
Who, after having exchanged their full powers, which were found to be in good and due form, have agreed upon the following articles:
Article I.
The high contracting parties pledge themselves to adopt measures which shall constitute an absolute and full guaranty that no bounty, either open or disguised, shall be allowed on the manufacture or exportation of sugar.
[Page 719]Article II.
The high contracting parties pledge themselves:
To collect the tax on such quantities of sugar as may he intended for consumption, without allowing, when such sugar is exported, any drawback or return of duties or any rebate that can be considered as equivalent to a bounty of any kind whatever.
To this end, they agree to subject sugar factories and refineries, together with factories for the extraction of sugar from molasses, to the warehousing system, under the permanent surveillance both by night and by day of the revenue officers.
To this effect the sugar works shall be constructed in such a manner as to furnish every guaranty against the clandestine removal of the sugar, and the aforesaid officers shall be at liberty to enter all parts of the said works.
Registers shall be kept concerning one or more stages of the manufacture, and the sugar, when finished, shall be deposited in special warehouses offering every desirable guaranty of security.
By way of exception to the first paragraph of this article, the duties on sugar used in the manufacture of chocolate and other productions intended for exportation may be refunded or remitted, provided that no bounty result therefrom.
Article III.
The high contracting parties agree to subject sugar refineries to the same system as sugar factories.
Nevertheless, each country may keep a refining account on the score of surveillance, by means of saccharometry; or it may use any other means of surveillance that may seem to it to be best adapted to prevent the allowance of a bounty on exportation.
Proposition of the delegates of the Netherlands.
The high contracting parties agree to subject sugar refineries to the same system as sugar factories.
Nevertheless, they reserve the right of determining by saccharometric methods, the quantity of refined that is represented by the raw sugar admitted into refineries without payment of duties, on condition that it shall be exported after being refined, without prejudice to the collection of duties on such surplusage as may be discovered by the permanent surveillance on exportation, and as may be shown by the inventory of sugar and strap in the refinery. This inventory shall be taken at least once a year.
Article IV.
As Belgium is not in the same circumstances as regards the enforcement of the system of taxation of quantities of sugar already produced, the system now established in that Kingdom may be maintained, with the following modifications:
The amount of the tax shall be reduced from 45 francs to 22 francs 50 centimes at the time when this convention shall take effect. The prise en charge* of the subscribing factories shall be raised from 1,500 to 1,750 grams when this convention goes into operation, and to 1,800 grams two years afterwards.
Article V.
The high contracting parties and their transmarine provinces, colonies, or foreign possessions which do not collect any tax on sugar, or which do not allow on the exportation of raw or refined sugar, molasses, or glucose any drawback, return, or remission of duties or quantities, shall be exempted from complying with the provisions of Articles II and III, provided that they pledge themselves to maintain one of those systems while the convention shall remain in force, or, in case of a change to adopt the system established in Articles II and III.
Russia, which levies a tax at a special rate on the total amount of sugar manufactured, and which allows on the exportation of all kinds of sugar a return not exceeding that rate, shall, so long as she maintains her present system, be assimilated to the powers designated in the foregoing paragraph.
Article VI.
The high contracting parties agree to appoint an international sugar commission, whose duty it shall be to take care that the provisions of this convention be executed.
[Page 720]This commission shall he composed of delegates of the different powers, and a permanent bureau shall be placed under its control.
The duties of the delegates shall be:
- (a)
- To examine whether the laws, orders, and regulations relating to the taxing of sugar are in conformity with the principles laid down in the foregoing articles, and to inquire whether, in practice, no bounty, either open or disguised, is allowed upon the exportation of sugar, molasses, or glucose.
- (b)
- To express their opinion concerning questions in dispute.
- (c)
- To examine applications for admission into the union of states that have not taken part in this convention.
It shall be the duty of the permanent bureau to collect, translate, arrange, and publish information of all kinds relative to the laws and statistics concerning sugar, not only in the contracting countries, but also in all other countries.
With a view to securing the execution of the foregoing provisions, the high contracting parties shall communicate, diplomatically, to the Government of Her Britannic Majesty, which shall transmit them to the commission, such laws, orders, and regulations concerning the taxation of sugar as are or shall be in force in their respective countries, together with such statistical information as may relate to the subject of this convention.
Each of the high contracting parties may be represented in the commission by a delegate, or by a delegate and an assistant delegate (an adjunct).
The first meeting of the commission shall take place at London, in the month following the ratification of this convention.
It shall be the duty of the commission to prepare, at its first meeting, a draught of a set of regulations fixing the place and the time of its subsequent meetings, together with the seat of the permanent bureau.
The commission shall, at its first meeting, prepare its by-laws, and also a report concerning the laws or bills that shall have been submitted to it by Her Britannic Majesty’s Government.
The commission shall have no power save to inspect and examine. It shall make, on all questions that shall be submitted to it, a report, which it shall address to Her Britannic Majesty’s Government, which Government shall communicate it to the interested powers, and shall, if this be requested by one of the high contracting parties, cause a conference to be convoked, which shall adopt such decisions or measures as the circumstances may require.
The expense entailed by the organization and the work of the permanent bureau and the commission—excepting the salaries or compensation of the delegates, which shall be paid by their respective countries—shall be borne by ail the contracting countries, and shall be apportioned among them in a manner to be hereafter determined by the commission.
Article VII.
After this convention shall have gone into operation all raw or refined sugar, molasses, or glucose from countries, transmarine provinces, colonies, or foreign possessions that shall maintain the system of open or disguised bounties on the manufacture or exportation of sugar shall be excluded from the territories of the high contracting parties.
Any contracting power, in order to exclude from its territory raw or refined sugar, molasses or glucose, on which open or disguised bounties have been allowed, may either prohibit such productions absolutely or may levy a duty upon them exceeding the amount of the bounty.
The high contracting parties pledge themselves to adopt the measures necessary to secure these results.
The fact of the existence in a country, transmarine province, colony, or foreign possession, of a system allowing open or disguised bounties on raw or refined sugar, molasses, or glucose, shall be decided by a vote of the signatory powers of this convention.
Article VIII.
States that have not taken part in this convention shall be allowed to adhere thereto at their request, on condition that their laws and regulations on the subject of sugar are in accord with the principles of this convention, and have been previously submitted to the approval of the high contracting parties in the manner prescribed in Article VI.
Article IX.
This convention shall go into operation on the 1st day of August, 1890.
It shall remain in force for ten years from that day, and in case none of the high contracting parties shall have given notice, ten months before the expiration of the [Page 721] said period often years, of its intention to cause the effects thereof to cease, it shall remain in force for one year longer, and so on from year to year.
In case one of the signatory powers shall give notice of its desire for the cessation of the effects of the convention, such notice shall have no effect except as regards that power; hut the other powers shall have the privilege, until the 31st day of October of the year in which such notice is given, to give notice of their intention to withdraw, in their turn, on and after the 1st day of August of the year following.
Nevertheless, each of the high contracting parties may, by giving notice twelve months in advance of its desire for the cessation of the effects of the convention, put an end thereto, so far as it is concerned, at the expiration of the second, fifth, and eighth years of the said period of ten years.
If more than one power shall desire to withdraw, a conference of the signatory powers shall meet at London within three months, for the purpose of deliberating with regard to the measures to be adopted.
Article X.
The stipulations of this convention shall be applicable to the transmarine provinces, colonies, and foreign possessions of the high contracting parties.
In case one of these transmarine provinces, colonies, and foreign possessions of the high contracting parties shall desire to withdraw separately from the convention, a notification to that effect shall be communicated to the contracting parties by the Government of its mother country, in the manner and with the consequences mentioned in Article IX.
Article XI.
The execution of the reciprocal engagements contained in this convention shall be subordinate, so far as may be necessary, to compliance with the formalities and rules established by the constitutional laws of each of the contracting countries.
This convention shall be ratified and its ratifications shall be exchanged at London on the 30th day of August, or sooner, if possible.
- Estimated saccharine yield.↩