893.512/552: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in China ( MacMurray )
Washington
,
February 24, 1927—5
p.m.
71. Your 158, February 19, 5 p.m.
- (1)
- Your paragraph 1. Department approves tacit acquiescence in surtaxes.
- (2)
- Your paragraph 2. The treaties of commerce and amity now being negotiated by the United States provide for unconditional most-favored-nation treatment with respect to dues and charges affecting commerce. Department has held that goods originating in the United States retain their nationality until they pass through customs and become a part of the stock of another country, this being true regardless of nationality of their ownership. Hence question whether goods originating in or destined to the United States are owned by Americans, Chinese or others is not material in determining customs treatment.
In the matter of taxation, treaties now being negotiated provide that nationals of the contracting countries shall not be subjected by either to the payment of any internal charges or taxes other or higher than those exacted of and paid by nationals of the country in question.
Please be guided by the foregoing. See articles 1 and 7 of treaty with Germany signed December 8, 1923, (Treaty Series 725).37
Grew