Department of State,
Washington, December 14,
1906.
No. 167.]
It may reasonably be assumed that the intention of the understanding is
that each Government shall make known to the other any modifications of
the transit regulations which may be made or contemplated,
[Page 1112]
thus affording opportunity
to make appropriate representations against any change which may be
found or deemed burdensome or calculated to impair the principle of
reciprocal favor upon which the understanding rests.
[Inclosure.]
The Acting Secretary of the
Treasury to the Secretary of
State.
Treasury Department,
Washington, December 12,
1906.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your letter of the 11th instant, in which you state that
your department has repeated by telegraph to the United States
ambassador at Mexico this department’s telegram of the 8th instant,
in regard to merchandise shipped duty free through the United States
from port to port in Mexico.
I have to request the return of the draft of the regulations
governing shipments from port to port in the United States through
Mexico, transmitted to you with this department’s letter of May 16
last.
In your letter of the 3d instant you state that the Mexican treasury
department will offer no impediment to the adoption of said
regulations, provided the Government of the United States will, in
its turn, accept such measures as Mexico may enact for the transit
of goods which, leaving Mexican port or frontier, may pass over
American territory to be reimported into Mexico by some other port
or frontier.
I am of the opinion that the acceptance by this Government of such
measures as Mexico may enact for the transit of goods from port to
port in Mexico, through the United States, under section 3005 of the
Revised Statutes, as amended, should not be made a condition
precedent to the adoption by Mexico of the regulations proposed by
this Government, under section 3006. As you were informed on the 8th
instant, merchandise may be shipped free of duty through the United
States from port to port in Mexico, under regulations made pursuant
to section 3005 of the Revised Statutes, as amended by the act of
May 21, 1900. Any modification of these regulations which the
Mexican Government shall at any time propose will have due
consideration by this department and will be adopted if compatible
with the purpose of the law, but I do not feel that the Government
should be committed to the acceptance of any changes without
knowledge of what they are.
Respectfully,
