File No. 861.00/2047
The Consul at Moscow ( Poole ) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 17, 4.25 p.m.]
607. Continuing No. 432, April 27, Article 7 of treaty between Central powers and Ukraine follows:
Article 7
The following is agreed upon concerning the economic relations between the contracting parties:
chapter i
The contracting parties engage themselves mutually to restore immediately all economic relations and to organize the exchange of merchandise on the basis of the following regulations:
Until the 31st of July of the present year all exchanges of surpluses of the most important agricultural and industrial products, in order to fill current needs, will be executed according to the following regulations: [Page 667]
- (a)
- The quantity and variety of products, the exchange of which has been mentioned in the preceding paragraph, will be fixed for each party by a committee composed of an equal number of members of both parties and convened immediately after the signing of the peace treaty.
- (b)
- The prices of the products in the above-mentioned exchange of merchandise will be fixed on a basis of mutual agreement by a committee composed of an equal number of members from both parties.
- (c)
- The computation shall be made in gold upon the following basis: 1,000 German imperial marks gold equal 462 karbowanjec gold of the Ukrainian People’s Republic or 462 rubles gold of the former Russian Imperial Government (counting the ruble as one fifteenth of an imperial) or 1,000 Austro-Hungarian gold kronen equal 393 karbowanjec 78 grosch gold of the Ukrainian People’s Republic or 393 rubles 78 kopeks gold of the former Russian Imperial Government (counting the ruble as one fifteenth of an imperial).
- (d)
- The exchange of merchandise by the committee provided for in paragraph a shall be effected through governmental centers or through centers under government control.
The exchange of products not provided for by the above-mentioned committees shall be effected in free intercourse on the basis of the provisional commercial treaty which is provided for in the following Chapter II.
chapter ii
In so far as the contrary has not been provided for in Chapter I, all economic relations between the contracting parties, provisionally until the conclusion of definite commercial treaty and in any case until at least six months after the conclusion of peace between Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey on one side, and on the other side European states which at the time are in a state of war with them, the United States of America, and Japan, will be based on the following regulations:
(a) With regard to the economic relations between the German Empire and the Ukrainian People’s Republic those agreements that are stipulated in the following regulations of the German-Russian commercial and maritime treaty of 1894–1904, namely:
Articles 1 to 6, Article 7 (including tariffs A and B), 8 to 10, 12, 13 to 19; further regulations of the final protocol, first part, additional1 to Article 1, paragraphs 1 and 3; additional to Articles 1 and 12, paragraphs 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9; additional to Article 3; additional to Article 5, paragraphs 1 and 2; additional to Articles 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10; additional to Articles 6, 7 and 11; additional to Articles 6 to 9; additional to Articles 6 and 7; additional to Article 12, paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 5; further in the final protocol, fourth part, paragraphs 3, 6, 7, 12, 12b, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 (with the retention of the corrections which have been made), 19, 20, 21 and 23.
Further, the following points are agreed upon:
- 1.
- The general Russian customs tariff of January the 13th/26th, 1903, will be maintained.
- 2.
- Article 5 shall read as follows:
“The contracting parties bind themselves not to impede mutual intercourse by any import, export, or transit restriction and to grant unhindered transit.
[Page 668]“Exceptions are granted only for such products which, on the territory of one of the contracting parties, are or will be subject to governmental monopoly, as well as for certain products which could be subject to extraordinary restrictive measures on account of health, veterinary policy, and public security or for other weighty political and economic reasons, especially in connection with the transitory conditions after the war.”
- 3.
- Neither party shall claim any privileges which are or will be granted by the other party to any other state on the basis of an existing or future customs union, as exists, for instance, between the German Empire and the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, or in limited frontier” trade within a frontier zone of 15 kilometers in width.
- 4.
- Article 10 shall read as follows:
“Goods of every kind which are transported through the territory of one of the parties, shall be mutually exempt from every transit duty whether they are transported directly or whether they have been unloaded, stored, and reloaded during their period of transit.”
- 5.
- Instead of Article 12 (a)
the following provisions shall be effective:
- “(a) The provisions of the treaty concluded between the German Empire and Russia on February 28, 1913, are effective with regard to the mutual protection of copyrights of works of art, literature, and photography.
- “(b) With regard to the mutual protection of the trade names of products, the regulations of the declaration of July 11/23, 1873, shall be effective in the future.”
- 6.
- The provision of the final protocol referring to
Article 19 has the following construction:
“The contracting parties will as far as possible support each other in regard to railway rates, especially by creating through rates. For this purpose both contracting parties are ready to enter into mutual negotiations as soon as possible.”
- 7.
- Paragraph 5 of the fourth part of the final
protocol shall read as follows:
“It has been mutually agreed that the customhouses of both countries will be open every day of the year, Sundays and legal holidays excepted.”
(b) With regard to the economic relations between Austria-Hungary and the Ukrainian People’s Republic, the agreements set forth in the following regulations of the Austro-Hungarian-Russian commercial and maritime treaty of February 15, 1906, namely: Articles 1 and 2, 5 (including tariffs A and B); Articles 6, 7, 9 to 13; Article 14, paragraphs 2 and 3; Articles 15 to 24; further in the regulations of the final protocol, additional to Articles 1 and 12, paragraphs 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6; additional to Article 2; to Articles 2, 3 and 5; additional to Articles 2 and 5; to Articles 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8; additional to Articles 2, 5, 6 and 7; additional to Article 17; also additional to Article 22, paragraphs 1 and 3.
Further, the following points have been agreed upon:
- 1.
- The general Russian customs tariff of January 13/26, 1903, shall be maintained.
- 2.
- Article 4 shall read as follows:
“The contracting parties bind themselves not to impede the mutual intercourse between their territories by any import, export, or transit restrictions. Exceptions thereto can be admitted only:
- “(a) For tobacco, salt, gunpowder and other explosive materials, as well as for other articles which at the time, on the territory of one of the contracting parties, shall be subject to governmental monopoly;
- “(b) Because of war needs under extraordinary circumstances;
- “(c) In consideration of public security, health and veterinary policy;
- “(d) For certain products, which for other weighty political and economic reasons, might be subject to extraordinary restrictive measures, especially in connection with the transitory conditions after the war.”
- 3.
- Neither party shall claim any privileges which are granted or shall be granted by the other party to any state on the basis of an existing or future customs union, as exists, for instance, between Austria-Hungary and the Principality of Liechtenstein, or in limited frontier trade within a frontier zone of 15 kilometers width.
- 4.
- Article 8 has the following construction:
“Goods of every kind which are transported through the territory of one of the parties, shall be mutually exempt from every transit tax, whether they have been transported directly or whether they have been unloaded, stored and reloaded during their period of transit.”
- 5.
- The regulation of the final protocol to Article 21
has the following construction:
“The contracting parties shall, as far as possible, support each other in regard to railway rates, especially by creating through rates. For this purpose both contracting parties are ready to enter into mutual negotiations as soon as possible.”
(c) With regard to the economic relations between Bulgaria and the Ukrainian People’s Republic, they shall be regulated until the conclusion of a definite commercial treaty, according to the rights of the most-favored nation.
Neither party shall claim any privileges which are granted or shall be granted by the other party to any state on the basis of an existing or future customs union, or in limited frontier trade within a frontier zone of 15 kilometers in width.
(d) With regard to the economic relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Ukrainian People’s Republic, both parties will grant each other, until the conclusion of a definite commercial treaty, the treatment applied to the most-favored nation.
Neither party shall claim any privileges which are granted or shall be granted by the other party to any state on the basis of an existing or future customs union, or in limited frontier trade.
chapter iii
The term of validity of the provisional regulations provided for in Chapter II of the present treaty concerning the economic relations between Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire on the one hand and the Ukrainian People’s Republic on the other, can be extended by the mutual agreement of both parties.
If the periods specified in Chapter II, paragraph 1, do not expire before June 30, 1919, each of the two contracting parties shall be free to revoke the regulations of the above-mentioned chapter within six months after June 30, 1919.1
chapter iv
(a) The Ukrainian People’s Republic shall not claim any privileges granted by Germany to Austria-Hungary or to another country connected with Germany by a customs union, which borders directly upon Germany or through another country connected by customs union with Germany or Austria-Hungary, or any privileges granted by Germany to her own colonies, foreign possessions and protectorates, or to those belonging to countries in customs union with her.
[Page 670]Germany shall not claim any privileges granted by the Ukrainian People’s Republic to another country connected with the Ukraine by a customs union, which borders upon her directly or through another country in customs union with her, or privileges which she grants to the colonies, foreign possessions and protectorates of a country in customs union with her.
(b) In the economic relations between the territory covered by the customs convention of both states of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy on one hand and the Ukrainian People’s Republic on the other, the Ukrainian People’s Republic shall not claim any privileges granted by Austria-Hungary to Germany or to another country connected with her by a customs union, which borders upon Austria-Hungary directly or through another country in customs union with her or Germany. Colonies, foreign possessions and protectorates are equal to the mother country in this respect.
Austria-Hungary shall claim no privileges granted by the Ukrainian People’s Republic to another country connected with her by a customs union, which borders upon the Ukrainian Republic directly or through another country in customs union with her, or privileges granted by her to the colonies, foreign possessions or protectorates of one of the countries in customs union with her.
chapter v
(a) In so far as German and Ukrainian goods, originating in Germany or Ukrainia, stored in neutral states, are obligated not to be exported either directly or indirectly to the territory of the other contracting party, such limitations with regard to the contracting parties shall be revoked.
Both contracting parties therefore bind themselves to bring immediately to the knowledge of the governments of the neutral states the above-mentioned revocation of these limitations.
(b) In so far as Austro-Hungarian and Ukrainian goods, originating in Austria-Hungary or Ukrainia, stored in neutral states, are obligated not to be exported either directly or indirectly to the territory of the other contracting parties, such restrictions with regard to the contracting parties shall be revoked.
Both contracting parties therefore bind themselves to bring immediately to the knowledge of the governments of the neutral states the above-mentioned revocation of these limitations.
Article 8
The reestablishment of public and private legal relations, the exchange of war prisoners and interned civilians, the question of amnesty as well as the question of the treatment of commercial vessels which have fallen into the hands of the opponent, shall be regulated by separate treaties with the Ukrainian People’s Republic which shall form an essential integral part of the present peace treaty and shall, as far as possible/become effective simultaneously with that treaty.
Article 9
The agreements reached in this peace treaty shall be considered as an indivisible whole.
Article 10
The interpretation of the present treaty shall be based, for relations between Germany and the Ukraine, on the German and the Ukrainian text; for the relations between Austria-Hungary and the Ukraine, on the German, the Hungarian [Page 671] and the Ukrainian text; for the relations between Bulgaria and the Ukraine, on the Bulgarian and the Ukrainian text; and for the relations between Turkey and the Ukraine, on the Turkish and the Ukrainian text.
Final Regulation
The present peace treaty shall be ratified. The ratification documents shall be exchanged in Vienna as soon as possible.
The peace treaty becomes effective with its ratification, in so far as is not otherwise specified in the treaty itself.
In witness whereof the plenipotentiaries have signed the present treaty and affixed their seals.
Executed in five originals at Brest Litovsk on the 9th of February, 1918.
- Kühlmann
- Hoffmann
- Czernin
- Radoslavoff
- Toscheff
- Stoyanovitch
- Gantchew
- Anastassoff
- Talaat
- Hakky
- Nessimi
- Izzet
- Sewrjuk
- Ljubynskyj
- Lewytskyj
NOTICE
Regarding Article 7 of the Peace Treaty of February 9, 1918
It has been agreed that the right of refusal mentioned in paragraph 2 in Chapter III of the above-mentioned article, relative to separate agreements (in Chapter II under A, B, C, D) shall be exercised independently by the parties participating in these separate agreements.
Therefore this paragraph instead of reading “each of the two contracting parties” should read “each of the five contracting parties.”