Mr. Wharton to Señor Hurtado.
Washington , March 7, 1892 .
Sir: Careful attention has been given to your note of the 25th ultimo, in which you reply at some length to the note which, by direction of the President, the Secretary of State had the honor to address you on January 7 last, conveying to you the contemplated action of the President in execution of the duty imposed upon him by virtue of the provisions of section 3 of the tariff law of October 1, 1890, and I beg to submit some observations as the result of the examination which has been given to your note.
You are under a misapprehension in supposing that the President of the United States was not aware of the fact that the Congress of Colombia would not convene until July next. He was fully informed of the circumstances related in your note connected with the sessions of that body; but he also understood that the President of Colombia was empowered by the Federal constitution to initiate and conduct negotiations with foreign Governments, and as early as June 3 of last year Secretary Blaine had the honor, acting under his instructions, to bring to your attention the liberal provisions of the Congress of the United [Page 456] States in the law cited, and expressed the hope that you might be empowered to enter with him upon the consideration of the commercial relations between the two countries with a view to reaching an adjustment profitable alike to both upon the basis of that legislation. Being advised by you that you had communicated his note to your Government, and a considerable time having transpired without any further communication from you on the subject, actuated by an earnest desire to maintain with Colombia the most friendly and liberal commercial relations, the minister of the United States at Bogota was directed to approach the minister of foreign affairs and prudently to make known to him the friendly desire of the Government of the United States respecting commercial intercourse, and, if possible, induce him to agree upon some mutually satisfactory arrangement in the expectation that he would undertake to submit the same to the Colombian Congress at its next session for its consideration and ratification.
I am sorry, however, to have to state that our minister at Bogota reports that all his efforts in the direction indicated have been without success, and that there is no present prospect of an agreement on the subject. Other of the American Republics have been placed in the same situation as that referred to in your note, but in response to invitations similar to the one addressed to you on January 3, 1891, more than one of the Presidents of those Republics have given instructions to their ministers in this city to enter upon negotiations resulting in mutually beneficial commercial arrangements which are made contingent upon the ratification of the respective national Congresses at their next session. It is deeply regretted by the President that his invitation to the Government of Colombia has not been responded to in the same conciliatory spirit. It would give him great pleasure to further suspend action as to Colombia, under section 3 of the tariff act, if you were authorized and prepared to celebrate with this Government an equitable reciprocity arrangement which the executive power would undertake to submit and recommend to the Colombian Congress at its next session; but the President does not regard the measure for the general extension on the free list, which you state it is intended to recommend to Congress, as a proper response to the invitation which has been given you to negotiate a special arrangement based upon the mutual convenience of the two countries.
The table showing the imports into Colombia, to which you particularly directed attention, has been examined in connection with the tariff of Colombia and the trade statistics published by the United States. It is true that the agricultural products enumerated by you are imported mainly from the United States, but I can not agree with you that the lowering of duty on those products would not benefit American interests. It appears that the largest item of the imports rated by you is flour, which comes from the United States, and that it is burdened with a duty of 66 per cent. Lard, next in volume of agricultural products, is taxed 95 per cent; hams, 55 per cent; beef, 40 per cent; canned meats, 80 per cent; cheese, 55 per cent; butter, 48 per cent; bread and biscuit, an important import, 105 per cent; refined sugar, 30 per cent; petroleum, a large item, 150 per cent. Most assuredly if these heavy duties were taken off a much larger consumption of them would occur. When we turn from this list of tariff duties exacted from American products, and examine the tariff of the United States in the leading products of Colombia imported into this country we find a most notable contrast, as they are admitted absolutely free of duty.
I regret to have to say that my examination of the free list of Colombia, [Page 457] to which you ask consideration, compared with the trade statistics, does not lead me to the same conclusions as are expressed by you. In the discussion of the free list you cite the item of “wood and manufactures of same” imported from the United States to the value of $457,519; but upon analyzing the articles by reference to the detailed statistics I find that 60 per cent of that amount are charged with duties. It also appears that of the other free articles named by you in the same paragraph the amount imported from the United States aggregates a small sum in value. Your citation of “manufactures of iron and steel” imported from the United States to the value of $710,492 seems to have little appropriateness in illustration of the Colombian free list, as much the larger portion of the articles embraced in the sum stated are taxed with considerable duties. My study of the free list has not brought to my notice any marked favor shown to the products of the United States. On the contrary, I find the tariff as a whole to be a serious impediment to the enlargement of our trade relations.
I have taken some pains to reply to the points presented in your note, in order that you may be assured of the friendly disposition of the President to take into consideration all the reasons which you have to advance to show that the tariff of Colombia is not reciprocally unequal and unreasonable. But there is one important aspect of the question which you have entirely omitted to mention, and which should have great weight in determining it. Upon referring to the statistics for the year ending June 30, 1890, I find that the total imports into the United States from Colombia amounted to $3,575,253, and of this sum only $4,659 paid duty.
In other words, practically all the products exported from Colombia to the United States are admitted free of duty. When we contrast this with the treatment extended to American products in Colombia the difference is painfully apparent. I do not lose sight of the free regulation on the Isthmus of Panama, but, after all due allowance is made for that trade, the absence of reciprocity of treatment is so marked as to require no comment. When to this is added the consideration that in all the nations of Europe almost all of the most important export products of Colombia are heavily taxed, you ought not to be surprised when I assure you that the reluctance of your Government to reciprocate in some degree the liberal treatment extended to Colombian commerce in the ports of the United States is a source of great disappointment to the President.
He earnestly hopes, however, that you will present this subject anew to your Government, and convey to it the assurance that he will be greatly gratified if the action which it may take will relieve him from the unpleasant duty pointed out in my note of January 7 last, imposed by the law of the Congress of the United States.
Accept, etc.,
Acting Secretary.