Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 3, 1888, Part II
No. 930.
Mr. Wilbor
to Mr. Bayard.
Lisbon, July 12, 1888. (Received July 30.)
Sir: Referring to your No. 68 and No. 78, I have the honor to inform the Department that Mr. Lewis was assured in a personal interview had with the minister of foreign affairs that an immediate reply would be made by Senhor Barros Gomez to the note then handed him, dated 2d January last, copy of which is inclosed, numbered 1. Frequent applications have since been made at the foreign office for the reply promised, but none was received until the 7th instant; a copy thereof dated July 7, 1888, is inclosed, numbered 2, and a translation thereof, numbered 3.
I also inclose translation of article 1315 of the commercial code of Portugal, marked A, and of article 11 of tariff of Mozambique; of articles 3 and 4 of the treaty of India, 1878; of articles 1 and 2 of decree of October 21, 1880; of decree of August 18, 1881; and finally of article 1 of decree of April 16, 1885, marked respectively B, C, D, E, and F, all of these documents being referred to by Senhor Barros Gomez in his note, but none of the originals furnished.
I have, etc.,
Mr. Lewis to Senhor Barros Gomez.
Lisbon, January 2, 1888.
Your Excellency: I am instructed by the State Department to call the attention of His Majesty’s Government to the following facts, viz: Mr. F. C. Butman, a merchant of Boston, Massachusetts, writes to the Secretary of State that his agent in the Cape Verde Islands informs him that “recent importations of goods of United States manufacture into these islands from Lisbon define the intention of Portuguese merchants to avail extensively of important and unjust exceptions in present tariff in favor of goods from Lisbon brought in Portuguese vessels.” He incloses a copy of the tariff, which on page 5, article 1, says, “merchandise imported from foreign ports into this archipelago will pay duty as defined in Table A, page 15.” Page 6, article 3: “Merchandise re-exported from Lisbon to this archipelago will pay 70 per cent, of duty as defined in Table A.” Table A, page 15, defines duty as follows: On goods of United States manufacture, Denim blue drills, etc., 400 reis per kilogram; flour, 15 reis per kilogram; unbleached cotton, 150 reis per kilogram; box of manufactured tobacco, 200,reisjper kilogram; sugar, 60 reis per kilogram; calicoes or prints, 500 reis per kilo gram, etc. Coming direct from Lisbon in Portuguese vessels the duty is 30 per cent, less than coming direct from the United States.
As the United States has considerable direct trade to these islands, more than any other foreign country, the tariff applies particularly severely upon United States goods. The question is often asked, why do citizens of the United States not avail themselves of the advantage of re-exportation via Lisbon for their goods? Why should citizens of the United States be forced to send their goods double voyages—pay freight to Lisbon and from Lisbon here in Portuguese vessels, who are enabled to charge high rates of freight by the monopoly sustained by the tariff compelling the goods to be brought in Portuguese vessels, instead of employing their own vessels to carry their own produce when prepared to do so? As I understand Portuguese products in Portuguese vessels are entitled to the same privileges of entry in our ports as entailed on the same goods if brought in American bottoms. As the matter now stands American manufactures are imported into Portuguese colonies via Lisbon at less than the same goods are subjected to if sent in American bottoms direct to such colonies; this is calculated to injure the trade with the colonies if not to stop it altogether. I beg leave to call your excellency’s attention to this latter fact, that it may cause the driving away of all direct [Page 1386] importations from the colonies to give place to those who pay 30 per cent, less duty into the revenue of the archipelago. Does it not strike your excellency that American goods exported in American bottoms should receive the same treatment in Portugal and its colonies that Portuguese goods in Portuguese bottoms do in America? The question of indirect importations into the colonies of a country is generally casus omissus in treaties. Under Article IV of the treaty of 1840 it is presumed that no discrimination of flag exists in the colonies and that goods indirectly imported thither by way of a Portuguese port, in a vessel of the United States, are entitled to a reduction of 30 per cent, of the tariff duties, the same as if imported in Portuguese vessels.
It is possible that the analogy of the coastwise trade, under the reservation of Article VII of the treaty, may be argued. This can only properly apply, it is thought, to importations which, having been regularly entered and paid duties in a port of the parent country, are thence conveyed in vessels of the country to another port thereof. But re-exportation in bond or with drawback equal to duties to another port of the same country is a different thing; and while it might be said that a rebate on foreign imports of the nature herein shown, at the port of final destination, is a discrimination against one home port and in favor of another, still it is evident that the effect is to discourage direct importations, and to favor a double voyage with transshipment in a port of the mother country. In the second case, the flag under which the voyage after such transshipment is made, becomes important. It is stated by Messrs. Butman & Co. that the indirect importations into the colonies from all foreign countries via the parent country are treated alike, and in this respect I would ask your excellency whether the question of discrimination has been raised by any other Government, and, if so, how it has been met by His Majesty’s Government.
I avail, etc.,
Senhor Barros Gomez to Mr. Wilbor.
Lisbon, July 7, 1888.
Your Excellency: I have before me the note which Mr. Lewis did me the honor to write me on January 2 ultimo, showing various reflections upon the inconveniences which result to the direct commerce between Cape Verde and the United States from the differential duty of 30 percent, in favor of merchandise into the archipelago through the metropolis.
The inconveniences pointed out in that note, and which are common to all foreign countries which trade with Cape Verde, may be considered as theoretical rather than as a real obstacle to direct importations, and can not in any case be actually removed for the reasons which I will proceed to present to your excellency.
The commerce of the metropolis with the province of Cape Verde, and with the other provinces of Western Africa, is as yet of cabotage (domestic coastwise trade) only, reserved for the Portuguese flag, in virtue of article 1315 of our commercial code. This reservation was considered in article 7 of the treaty of commerce of the 26th of August, 1840, between Portugal and the United States, ratified February 8, 1841.
The complaint of the merchants, being made against the differential duty and not against the principle, does not appear well founded, because the arrival of American products at Lisbon, their transshipment to Portuguese vessels, the freight thereon to Cape Verde, and the inevitable delays represent, as regards some flags, charges greater than 30 per cent., by which re-exportation the commerce of the metropolis is benefited. No other nation having objected to the reservation of cabotage, there has been heretofore no consideration of this subject.
His Majesty’s Government has latterly been abandoning gradually the reserve of cabotage to the national flag. The measures adopted since 1877 are to be found in article 11 of the custom-house tariff of the province of Mozambique, decreed on 30th July of that year, in the treaty of India, December 26, 1878, in the decrees with the force of law dated 21st October. 1880, the 18th August, 1881, and finally, in the law of 16th April, 1885.
I avail, etc.,
Tariff, province of Mozambique, July 30, 1877.—Eleventh article, section III.
Commerce of importation, exportation, and cabotage, article 11. Are declared open to national and foreign commerce, the ports of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, Angoche, Quilimane, Inhambane, and Lourence Marques, in which will be established custom-houses [Page 1387] of deposit. Cabotage being allowed both for national and foreign vessels between the same ports to transport merchandise subject to duties, to be paid in the custom-house in which it is definitely cleared.
The transportation of merchandise between the ports named for the effects of this article is exempt from duty and bond, and bound only to have a lawful permit in the terms of article 69.
Extract from Commercial Code of Portugal.
1315. The commerce between the ports of Portugal, the islands and Portuguese dominions in any part of the world, can only be made in Portuguese vessels, either by exportation or importation, and reciprocally.
Articles 3 and 4 of the Treaty of India, 1879.
Art. 3. The ports, harbors, roadsteads, basins, creeks, and rivers in the Indian dominions of each of the high contracting parties shall be open to the commerce and navigation of the subjects of the other on the same conditions as those on which they are open to the subjects of the party in whose dominions they are.
The coasting and carrying trade between one port and another in the Indian dominions of each of the high contracting parties shall be open to the vessels of the other without any restriction, except such as is or may be imposed upon national vessels.
No vessel of one of the high contracting parties shall be subjected by the other to any harbor or navigation dues of any description whatsoever, or to any regulations for stationing, loading, unloading, or otherwise, to which national vessels are not equally subject, or shall be denied any privilege which is accorded to such vessel.
The high contracting parties reserve to themselves, respectively, the right of retaining, increasing, modifying, and abolishing the dues and charges on navigation in their respective Indian dominions, and of establishing new dues and charges of a like nature.
Art. 4. The privileges and engagements comprised in articles 1, 2, and 3 of this treaty shall extend to native states, which, by treaty with Her Britannic Majesty or otherwise, may be entitled to be placed, in the matters referred to therein respectively, on the same footing as British India.
The governor-general of British India will, from time to time, communicate to the governor-general of Portuguese India a list of such native states.
Articles 1 and 2 of decree of October 21, 1880.
- Art. 1. The impost of damage is established in the ultramarine Portuguese provinces, collected from national and foreign navigation of long voyage or cabotage, in the form prescribed in the following article.
- Art. 2. National or foreign sailing or steam vessels which go into the ultramarine Portuguese ports are subject to the tonnage tax fixed in the annexed table.
Decree of July 18, 1885.
Sir: Article 1315 of the commercial code decreed September, 1833, reserved to the Portuguese flag the commerce of importation and exportation between the ports of the continent of the Kingdom, adjacent islands, and Portuguese dominions of any part of the world.
[Page 1388]The decree of July 30, 1877, acknowledging that the privilege granted of cabotage is the last of monopolies which everywhere is giving way to open trade, opened to commerce the ports of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, Angoche, Quilimane, Sofala, Inhambane, and Lourence Marques, permitting cabotage between those ports both by national and foreign vessels.
Navigation of cabotage will only continue privileged within the limits of Cape Verde and Angola.
Article 1 of decree of April 16, 1885.
Art. 1. Foreign vessels are allowed the commerce of cabotage between the ultramarine Portuguese provinces east of Cape of Good Hope; that is, Mozambique, India, Macao, and Timor, and the Portuguese ports of the European continent and adjacent islands. Article 1315 of the commercial code being hereby altered, the rules established or to be established for the national flag, are applied to said foreign vessels.
The commerce of cabotage in the ports of the metropolis and adjacent islands, between them and with Portuguese ports of west Africa, continue reserved to the national flag in the terms of legislation in force.