611.003 Oils/63
The Japanese Ambassador (Saito) to the Secretary of State
The Japanese Ambassador presents his compliments to the Honorable the Secretary of State and, in pursuance of his note No. 113 [123] dated June 6, 1936,64 has the honor to inform the Secretary that the proposed imposition of customs duty on Rapeseed oil would affect the importation of such oil adversely as in the case of Perilla oil if the Revenue Tax Bill now under consideration by the Congress in conference be enacted in the present form. Both Perilla and Bapeseed oil are not only special products of Japan which are exported to the United States to the amount of ¥21,000,000 and ¥11,000,000, respectively, in 1935, but also their cultivation and manufacture are conducted mainly for the United States market.
Now that the proposed duty would be equivalent to 80% and 100% ad valorem, respectively, the bill, if enacted as it is, would prove to be almost prohibitive to the importation of the commodities in question, and further, in view of the fact that these commodities form two important items of Japanese export to the United States the effect on the trade in general between the two countries would not at all be negligible.
In these circumstances, the Ambassador begs leave to express the hope that these two items be eliminated from the list of the proposed new duties so as to avoid creating another hindrance to the Japanese-American trade.
- Not printed.↩