I inclose copies of the correspondence.
[Inclosure 1 in No. 228.]
Mr. Lawrence to
Senhor Corrêa.
Legation of the United States,
Rio de Janeiro, April 4,
1892.
Sir: I have the honor to bring to the notice of
your excellency that complaints and protests have been made by exporting
merchants of Bahia and Pernambuco of the imposition of an increased
export tax on merchandise shipped from those cities to the United States
of America, to wit:
By the merchants of Bahia, that under the provisions of a law enacted by
the legislature of that State, on the 11th of January last, they are
obliged to pay a duty of 19 per cent on all skins exported to the United
States of America.
And by the merchants of Pernambuco, that under a decree of the junta, on
the 1st of February last, there has been and is levied an additional tax
of 2 per cent on all sugars exported from Pernambuco to the United
States of America.
Referring to the commercial arrangement entered into between our
respective Governments, and which was proclaimed by both on the 5th day
of February, 1891, in which it is provided by the Government of the
United States of Brazil “that no increase shall be made in the export
tax now in force, whether national, State, or municipal, upon any
article, the product of Brazil, now on the free list of the tariff of
the United States of America, so long as such article continues to be
admitted free of duty,” I beg to call your attention to the present
tariff law of the United States of America, in the third section of
which provision was made for “the admission into the ports of the United
States, free of duty, whether national, State, or municipal, of the
following articles: Sugars, all not above No. 16, Dutch standard in
color, all tank bottoms, all sugar drainings and sugar sweepings, sirups
of cane juice, melada, concentrated melada, and concrete and
concentratad molasses; molasses; coffee; hides, raw or uncured, whether
dry, salted, or pickled; Angora goat skins, raw, without the wool,
unmanufactured; asses’ skins, raw or unmanufactured; and skins, except
sheep skins, with the wool on.”
As it would therefore appear that the imposing of these duties of export
is a violation of the provisions of our commercial arrangement, my
Government has instructed me to bring the matter to the attention of
your excellency, in order that the Government of Brazil may provide for
the stipulations of the arrangement.
In presenting the subject to your excellency, I reiterate the assurance
of Minister Conger that my Government has entire confidence in the
desire and determination of the Government of Brazil that the provision
of the arrangement shall be faithfully executed.
If, upon investigation, these complaints should prove to be well founded,
I will thank your excellency to advise me at as early a date as
practicable of the action taken for the relief of these exporters and to
secure to all the advantages to which they are entitled.
I avail myself of the occasion to renew to your excellency the assurance
of my highest consideration.
William H. Lawrence,
Charge d’Affairs ad interm.
