[Enclosure]
The Deputy Secretary General of the League of
Nations (Avenol) to the Secretary of State
Geneva, April 2,
1927.
C.L.29.1927.II
Sir: On behalf of the Council of the League
of Nations I have the honour to invite the United States Government
to send a duly authorised delegation to take part in an
international conference with a view to framing an international
convention for abolishing import and export prohibitions and
restrictions.
This invitation is addressed to States Members and non-Members of the
League of Nations in pursuance of the following resolution adopted
by the Council on March 11th, 1927.
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“The Council,
- a)
- approves the report of the Economic Committee on its 21st
Session;
- b)
- decides to convene at Geneva a diplomatic conference of
duly authorised representatives of the Governments Members
and non-Members of the League of Nations, with a view to the
framing of an international convention for the abolition of
import and export prohibitions and restrictions. The
invitations to the States will be accompanied by the
documents already prepared by the Economic Committee.
November 14th, 1927, is the date provisionally fixed for
this conference.”
It has been decided provisionally that the Conference should meet on
November 14th, 1927, but the Council may, if circumstances require
it, alter this date at its next session.
At the same time, the Council decided to communicate to all the
Governments invited to the conference the enclosed document
(C.I.A.P.1.) drawn up by the Economic Committee to serve as a basis
for the conference’s discussions.96 This document contains a
preliminary draft international agreement for the abolition of
import and export prohibitions and restrictions, preceded by a brief
historical sketch and a summary of the results of the enquiries
conducted by the Economic Committee with the Governments and the
commercial and industrial organisations of the various countries,
and followed by observations on certain articles of the preliminary
draft agreement.
In the two annexes will be found the amendments proposed and
observations submitted by the organisations concerned and by certain
Governments concerning the individual articles of the preliminary
draft agreement.
I should be glad if you would be so good as to let me know whether
the United States Government is prepared to send representatives to
this conference.
I have [etc.]
[Subenclosure—Extract]
III. Preliminary Draft Agreement Established
by the Economic Committee
Article 1
Subject to the exceptions provided for in the following articles,
each contracting State undertakes within a period of six months to
abolish all import and export prohibitions and restrictions and not
thereafter impose or maintain any such prohibitions or
restrictions.
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In the meantime, the contracting States will adopt all practicable
measures to reduce existing prohibitions and restrictions to a
minimum and to avoid the imposition of any fresh ones.
Further, they undertake to adopt all necessary measures to see that
the provisions of the present Agreement are strictly observed by all
Governments, central or local authorities, and that no
administrative regulation is issued in contravention thereof.
Article 2
Should the contracting States in pursuance of their general
legislation subject the importation or exportation of goods to
certain regulations in respect of the manner, form or place of
importation or exportation, or the imposition of marks, they
undertake that such regulations shall not be made a means of
disguised prohibition or arbitrary restriction.
Article 3
In the case of any prohibitions or restrictions which may be applied
within the limits set by the present Agreement, the contracting
States shall in the matter of licences comply strictly with the
provisions of Article 3 of the International Convention for the
simplification of Customs Formalities signed at Geneva on November
3rd, 1923.97
Article 4
The following classes of prohibitions and restrictions are not
prohibited by the provisions of the present Agreement, provided that
they are applied equally to all foreign countries where the same
conditions prevail and are not applied in such a way as to conceal
measures the object of which is purely economic:
- 1.
- Prohibitions or restrictions having in view national
defence, public safety or order;
- 2.
- Prohibitions or restrictions issued on grounds of public
health;
- 3.
- Prohibitions or restrictions having in view the protection
of animals and plants against disease, degeneration or
extinction;
- 4.
- Prohibitions or restrictions imposed for moral or
humanitarian reasons or for the suppression of improper
traffic, provided that the manufacture of and trade in the
goods to which the prohibitions relate are also prohibited
or restricted in the interior of the country;
- 5.
- Export prohibitions or restrictions issued for the
protection of national treasures of artistic, historical or
archaeological value;
- 6.
- Prohibitions or restrictions intended, in conformity with
the national legislation or international conventions, to
protect industrial, literary and artistic property, and to
prevent unfair competition in regard to the false marking or
appellation of origin, on condition that an analogous
protection or supervision is applied to national
products;
- 7.
- Prohibitions or restrictions imposed for the purpose of
extending to imported goods measures of control equivalent
or analogous to those applying to home products of the same
kind;
- 8.
- Prohibitions or restrictions applied to articles which in
the interior of the country are subject to State monopoly or
to monopolies granted by the State as regards either
manufacture or trade;
- 9.
- Prohibitions or restrictions established in pursuance of
international conventions regulating the traffic in arms,
opium or other forms of trade which give rise to dangers or
abuses, or relating to methods of unfair competition;
- 10.
- Prohibitions applicable to coins, gold, silver, currency
notes or securities.
Article 5
Nothing in this Agreement shall affect the right of any contracting
State to take on importation or exportation all necessary measures
to meet extraordinary and abnormal circumstances and to protect the
vital economic and financial interests of the State. Nevertheless,
in view of the grave inconveniences caused by prohibitions and
restrictions, they shall only be imposed in cases of exceptional
necessity and shall not be made an arbitrary means of protecting
national products or of discriminating against any other contracting
State. Their duration shall be restricted to that of the causes or
circumstances from which they arise.
Article 6
Each contracting State agrees not to invoke the provisions of the
present Agreement as a ground of objection to measures of
prohibition or restriction applied by another contracting State to
the products of a third State which imposes on its products
prohibitions or restrictions of a kind prohibited by the present
Agreement or which subjects its commerce or shipping to measures of
exclusion or discrimination or to unfair methods of competition.
Article 7*
Should a dispute arise between two or more contracting States as to
the interpretation or application of the provisions of the present
Agreement, and should such dispute not be settled either directly
between the parties or by the employment of any other means of
reaching agreement, the parties to the dispute may, before resorting
to any arbitral or judicial procedure, submit the dispute, with a
view to an amicable settlement, to such technical body as the
Council of the League of Nations may appoint for this purpose. This
body will give an advisory opinion after hearing the parties and
effecting a meeting between them if necessary.
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The advisory opinion given by the said body will not be binding upon
the parties to the dispute unless it is accepted by all of them, and
they are free, either after resort to such procedure or in lieu
thereof, to have recourse to any arbitral or judicial procedure
which they may select, including reference to the Permanent Court of
International Justice as regards any matters which are within the
competence of that Court under its Statute.
[If a dispute of the nature referred to in the first paragraph of
this article should arise with regard to the interpretation or
application of Articles (. . . .) of the present Agreement, the
parties shall, at the request of any of them, refer the matter to
the decision of the Permanent Court of International Justice,
whether or not there has previously been recourse to the procedure
prescribed in the first paragraph of this article.]*
The adoption of the procedure before the body referred to above or
the opinion given by it will in no case involve the suspension of
the measures complained of; the same will apply in the event of
proceedings being taken before the Permanent Court of International
Justice, unless the Court decides otherwise under Article 41 of the
Statute.
Article 8
The present Agreement shall be open for signature for a period of
twelve months from the present date by any State which is a Member
of the League of Nations or to which the Council shall have
communicated a copy for this purpose.
Thereafter any such State may accede to the Agreement by an
instrument communicated to the Secretary-General of the League of
Nations, who shall at once notify its receipt to the other parties
to the Agreement.
Article 9
The present Agreement shall be ratified and the ratifications
deposited at Geneva with the Secretary-General of the League of
Nations as soon as possible. It shall come into effect ninety days
after the date on which the Secretary-General notifies the parties
that it has been ratified or acceded to by (. . . .†) States, including those
mentioned in Appendix.‡
As regards a State ratifying or acceding to the Agreement after it
has come into force, the Agreement shall come into force ninety days
after the notification of such ratification or accession by the
Secretary-General
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of the
League of Nations. If within two years from the present date
sufficient ratifications and accessions have not been notified to
bring the Agreement into force, the States which have ratified or
acceded to the Agreement will confer with a view to deciding whether
the Agreement should be put into effect as among themselves.
Article 10
Any contracting State may denounce the Agreement by a notification in
writing addressed to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations
at any time not less than (four) years from the date when the
Agreement comes into force. Such denunciation shall take effect one
year after its receipt by the Secretary-General and shall only
operate in respect of the denouncing State.
If one of the contracting States named in the preceding article or
five other contracting States not so named denounce the present
Agreement, any contracting State shall be entitled to request the
Council of the League of Nations to summon a Conference to consider
the situation thus created. If the Council declines this request,
any contracting State may denounce the present Agreement by six
months’ notice. Should the Conference meet under the auspices of the
League of Nations, any contracting State which dissents from its
decision may similarly denounce the Agreement by six months’
notice.
Article 11
In order to indicate the progress which has been made in regard to
the abolition of import and export prohibitions or restrictions,
each contracting State shall, within twelve months of the coming
into force in its own case of the present Agreement, furnish the
Secretary-General of the League of Nations with a statement of the
steps which it has taken for the purpose, with a view to the
communication of a summary of this information to the various
States.
Article 12
If before the expiration of the period of four years mentioned in
Article 10 one-third of the contracting States notify the
Secretary-General of the League of Nations of their desire that the
present Agreement should be revised, the other contracting States
undertake to participate in any consultation that may take place
with a view to the revision or maintenance of the Agreement.
Note.—The Agreement, if it takes the form
of a Convention, will need to be completed by the usual articles
which have become “common form”, dealing with such matters as the
position of colonies and overseas possessions or of countries which
form part of the same sovereign State, the relation of the
Convention to the rights and duties of States as Members of the
League of Nations, etc.
