781.003/119: Telegram
The Chargé in France (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 5:30 p.m.]
682. Department’s 243, April 29, noon. The text of the customs valuation article has been supplied informally without numerical designation by the Foreign Office and reads in translation, made by the Embassy, as follows:
“The declared value for customs purposes shall be the cash wholesale value of the merchandise at the time when and the place where presented to the customs, that is to say the wholesale value of the merchandise or of similar merchandise in the markets of the place where importation is effected, less customs duties and warehouse charges as well as various expenses incurred subsequent to importation.
The value thus defined corresponds in a general way to the normal wholesale export value in the countries of shipment, increased by the necessary charges for importation up to the place of entry (transportation, freight, export taxes, insurance, commissions, packing costs not separately dutiable, lighterage, et cetera), excluding customs duties and warehouse charges.”
The Embassy will continue efforts to obtain full text of treaty at earliest moment possible.