693.002/696: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State
Shanghai, June 15, 1938—6
p.m.
[Received 7:35 p.m.]
[Received 7:35 p.m.]
845. Reference Department’s telegraphic instruction 357, June 1, 6 p.m., and my 831, June 13, 9 p.m.6
- 1.
- Request to this office by American firms for assistance in ironing out the illegal import tariff increases affecting them are becoming numerous. Trade Commissioner Smith is now drafting a radiogram reporting that the new import schedule contains increases over 1934 schedule on 110 classifications and subclassifications, of which 24 are significant in American trade. These items will be listed, with a statement of the percentage duty increases. Authorization to discuss informally with the Commissioner of Customs methods of preventing [Page 728] the assessment of increased rates on American goods would be helpful Discretion to make informal representations to the Japanese authorities to this end might also prove helpful.
- 2.
- This office is informed that the Commercial Counselor of the British Embassy made informal oral representations to the Japanese Embassy on June 13 against the increased rate of import duty on butter being assessed in Shanghai under the “illegal” tariff schedule now enforced in Shanghai and that the Japanese Embassy official replied that the increase was probably the result of an oversight and quoted the increased rate of duty on sake as an example of another oversight. This information tends to support the belief that the increases affecting American trade, in some instances, for some time also have been the result of oversight.
Repeated to Hankow and Peiping.
Lockhart
- Latter not printed.↩