Chargé Winthrop to the Secretary of State.
Madrid, November 20, 1906.
Sir: Referring to my No. 198 of the 15th instant, I have the honor to inform you that the Hispano-Swiss treaty, after having been duly ratified by both legislative bodies, was officially promulgated and made law by royal decree signed last night by the King.
As supplementary to the comments in my No. 198, I have the honor to call the department’s attention to the following facts:
In addition to some of the principal reductions made by Spain upon Swiss imports as already enumerated and compared with the duties under the second column of the new tariff, there must be added agricultural machines, which pay 10 pesetas per 100 kilograms total weight, being the same duty as under the second column, but it is to be noted that the treaty fixes this duty for eleven years, and it can not be affected by a change of tariff until the treaty expires; gold watches, which pay 1 peseta apiece, instead of 15 pesetas under the second column; silver watches and those of other metals, including those of silver gilt and those with some part of the watch of gold, which pay 50 centimes apiece instead of 2 pesetas.
A great many of the reductions enumerated, both in my No. 198 and in the present dispatch, are obviously included among American exports of greater or less importance, and the most favored nation clause of our recent commercial arangement with Spain of course gives us the benefits of these reductions made to Switzerland.
At the time the said arrangement was signed, it was not at all certain that the ministry of state had the power to affix the most favored nation clause to a mere arrangement or modus vivendi, without asking the ratification of this clause by the Cortes. I have, however, noticed with interest in following the debates on the Swiss treaty, that the United States has always been alluded to as one of the nations to benefit by these reductions, as a matter of course.
I have the honor to inclose herewith a copy of the Gaceta containing the Hispano-Swiss treaty in question.
I have, etc.,