Mr. von Reichenau to Mr. Sherman.
Washington, July 28, 1897.
Mr. Secretary of State: The United States tariff act, which took effect on the 24th instant, provides, in section 5, that any dutiable article imported into the United States from a foreign country, on which an export bounty is paid by the foreign State, shall be subject, in addition to the general duty imposed by the tariff act, to an additional duty equal to the net amount of the export bounty.
A higher duty is imposed on German sugar by the above provision than upon sugar from several other countries.
Against this discriminating treatment of German sugar, which, in the opinion of the Imperial Government, is incompatible both with the most favored nation rights that are secured to German productions by the treaties in force as regards the duties to be levied on them when they are imported into the United States, and with the provisions of the Saratoga agreement of August 22, 1891, the German ambassador, in pursuance of instructions received, protested in his notes of April 5 and May 16, 1897, in case the treaty-violating provision should acquire the force of law.
Since that is now the case, in consequence of the passage of the entire tariff act on the 24th instant, I have been instructed by the Imperial Government, and accordingly have the honor, for the reasons which were stated in Baron Thielmann’s aforesaid two notes, and which are therefore not repeated here, to hereby again protest against the treaty-violating treatment of German sugar in the United States tariff act of July 24, 1897.
Accept, etc.,