681.003/61
The Diplomatic Agent and Consul General at Tangier ( Blake ) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 19.]
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith copy of the Spanish text and English translation of a Dahir, dated March 31, 1934,8 imposing an internal consumption tax on imported wheat and flour in the Spanish Zone of Morocco.
There is also enclosed herewith a copy of a Note7 which I have addressed to my Spanish Colleague in Tangier, for the purpose of placing on record the general position of the American Government in [Page 840] the matter, and a protest against the violation of fundamental treaty principles involved in the application of the Dahir in question.
I have no doubt that the Department will desire the American Ambassador in Madrid to make similar representations to the Spanish Government. For this purpose, it is believed that my Note to the Chargé d’Affaires of Spain in Tangier, (Enclosure No. 3) contains sufficient elements upon which protests at Madrid may be based.
Aside from the illegal discrimination of the Dahir against imported products and the intolerable position which it creates for the wheat and flour trade, in view of the unknown rate of taxation which will be arbitrarily applied to any given consignment, the action of the Spanish authorities in the application of the measures has been incredibly harsh and bewildering.
The Dahir is dated March 31, 1934, and was promulgated in the issue of the Official Bulletin of the same date, but this publication did not make its appearance in the Spanish Zone until about the middle of April, the subscription copy of this Legation was not received until April 19.
In this interval the Customs authorities at the ports of the Spanish Zone, held up the clearance of flour shipments which had arrived prior to March 31, on the plea that they were awaiting instructions as to whether or not the new taxation should be retroactively applied to these consignments.
The flour was forcibly detained in the Customs House, on this account, for about two weeks, and was then released when the belated Official Bulletin, above referred to, fixed the new consumption tax on imported flour at 15 Pesetas per metric quintal (approximately 100 per cent of its c.i.f. value), but exempted from the taxation the shipments which had already reached ports in the Spanish Zone.
The Official Bulletin also provided exemption from the taxation, of shipments made, prior to March 31, 1934, from foreign ports, direct for Spanish Zone ports.
Nevertheless, such shipments, including some for American ressortissants, were also refused clearance, because the Spanish Zone Customs officials stated that they were awaiting the return to Tetuan of the Spanish High Commissioner, absent in Spain, for definite instructions from him as to the treatment to be applied to the shipments in question.
American protégées whose consignments have been held up in this way, have presented complaints for this arbitrary disturbance to their trade, and claim damages in regard to the deterioration of their goods arising from unduly protracted and improper detention of the shipments by the Customs authorities.
[Page 841]Concurrently with the enforcement of the Dahir, the authorities in the various centers of the Spanish Zone, fixed maximum sale prices of flour at figures which are below the actual cost price of the commodity, and impose heavy fines on merchants who disregard the official prices, although transactions on such basis would involve serious loss.
My British, Italian, Belgian and Dutch colleagues have filed protests against the Dahir, and, as above suggested, I trust the Department will also cause representations be made to the Spanish Government on the subject.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩