Chargé Neill to the
Secretary of State.
American Legation,
Lima,
Peru, December 4,
1905.
No. 1213.]
Sir: I have the honor to communicate for the
information of the Department of State that a new treaty of commerce and
customs regulations was signed on November 27, 1905, by the Peruvian
minister for foreign relations and the plenipotentiary of Bolivia.
The clause of the most-favored nation and the free importation granted to
the limited trade on the frontier place the commercial relations between
both countries on a footing of equity and perfect reciprocity, which
insures them peaceful development.
The Congress of Bolivia and that of Peru, both now in session, will
approve and sanction this treaty as soon as possible.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
Treaty of commerce and customs regulations
between Peru and Bolivia.
The Governments of Peru and Bolivia, animated by the purpose of
rendering closer their commercial relations and of subjecting them
to rules which harmonize with the requirements of their respective
countries, have resolved to celebrate a new treaty of commerce and
customs regulations, and with this object have appointed as their
plenipotentiaries His Excellency the President of the Peruvian
Republic, Dr. Javier Prado y Ugarteche, minister of state for
foreign relations, and His Excellency the President of Bolivia,
Colonel Benedicto Goytia, envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary in Peru.
Who, after having exhibited their full powers, which were found to be
in good and due form, have agreed upon the following:
- Article 1. Peru and Bolivia
establish their commercial relations on the basis of the
most complete reciprocity.
- Art. 2. Both countries agree to
the free commercial transit of all the natural and
industrial products of each country and such foreign ones as
are introduced by routes by Mollendo and Puno to La Paz and
from Mollendo to Pelechuco via Cojata, and vice
versa.
- Art. 3. Peru and Bolivia are
fully at liberty to levy import duties or local taxes on the
natural industrial or manufactured products of one or the
other country which may be introduced into their respective
territories.
- Art. 4. Both countries oblige
themselves to grant reciprocally the same advantages or
commercial immunities which they concede to the most-favored
nation in such a manner that if one of the contracting
parties should stipulate or may have stipulated with a third
power that the natural industrial or manufactured products
of the said country may be introduced into its respective
territory free of import duties or local taxes or that those
that they pay
[Page 739]
shall be in a lesser degree or proportion than those which
the goods of the other contracting party have to pay the
latter shall de facto enjoy the same reductions, immunities,
and concessions, because in no case can the articles of one
of the contracting parties be charged in that of the other
with heavier taxes, duties, assessments, or tariffs than
those existing in those countries for the similar products
of the most-favored nation, nor can they be placed in an
inferior condition to those of any other country.
- Art. 5. Cattle of any kind
intended for the consumption of Peru or of Bolivia which may
pass through the territory of the other country can not be
charged with any tax except that of the tolls which are
already established or which may be established hereafter
for the transit of the cattle belonging to the country in
which the tax is collected.
- Art. 6. In view of the
reciprocal conveniences of the taxpayers of the frontier
zones of both republics the importation of the following
articles, provided they proceed from one or other of the two
countries, shall be free from every government or municipal
tax in Peru or in Bolivia and exempt from all consular or
custom-house documents, viz: Fresh fruits, fresh fish, fresh
shrimps, fresh meat, cheese, milk, eggs, potatoes, corn
flour, quinoa, cañagua, maize, barley in grain. No
government or municipal tax shall also be collected between
the two countries on the following articles within the
limits already expressed: Jerked meat, up to 10 kilograms;
dried meats and sausages, up to 23 kilograms; butter, up to
6 kilograms; sheep’s wool, alpaca, or llama wools, up to 12
kilograms; coca, up to 12 kilograms; cocoa, up to 6
kilograms; coffee, up to 12 kilograms; and chocolate, up to
5 kilograms.
- Art. 7. In order to prevent the
clandestine and fraudulent introduction of merchandise to
the respective territory of each of the high contracting
parties, there shall be established a special protocol of
the customs regulations, to which must be subjected the
importation or exportation of goods in transit by the
Mollendo route.
- Art. 8. The treaty of June 7,
1881, is hereby annulled in all its parts, as also the
complementary protocols originating therefrom.
- Art. 9. The present treaty, once
it is ratified and interchanged, shall commence to come in
force on the 1st of July next, up to which date the present
treaty of commerce of 1881 shall remain in force.
- Art. 10. This treaty shall
remain in force for a period of five years, which shall be
understood to be prorogued indefinitely as long as its
expiration is not declared by one of the two contracting
parties, in which case the notice of the denouncement shall
be given to the other party with one year’s
anticipation.
- Art. 11. All the questions which
may arise as regards the meaning and execution of the
present treaty, and which can not be settled directly
between the two parties, shall be submitted to arbitration,
in accordance with the general treaty of arbitration between
the two countries dated November 21, 1901.
In proof of which both plenipotentiaries
have signed the present treaty, in duplicate, sealing it with
their respective private seals, in Lima,
November 27,
1905.
Javier Prado y Ugarteche
.
[
l. s.]
Benedicto Goytia
. [
l. s.]
