SPAIN. SUPPLEMENTAL COMMERCIAL AGREEMENT EFFECTED BY EXCHANGE OF NOTES BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND SPAIN. Signed at Washington, February 20, 1909. BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Spain have, by an exchange of notes at Washington on February 20, 1909, agreed to supplement the Commercial Agreement which they concluded at San Sebastian on August 1, 1906, to the end that sparkling wines produced in and exported from Spain may be admitted on their importation into the United States at the reduced rates authorized by Section 3 of the United States Tariff Act of July 24, 1897, which action, in the judgment of the President, is compensated by reciprocal and equivalent concessions on the part of Spain in favor of the products of the soil or industry of the United States; Now, Therefore, be it known that I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, acting under the authority conferred by the third section of said Tariff Act, do hereby suspend, during the continuance in force of the said Commercial Agreement of August 1, 1906, the imposition and collection of the duties imposed by the first section of said Act upon the articles hereinafter specified, being the products of the soil or industry of Spain; and do declare in place thereof the following rates of duty provided in the third section of said Act to be in force and effect from and after the date of this, my Proclamation, as follows: On all sparkling wines, in bottles containing not more than one quart and more than one pint, six dollars per dozen; containing not more than one pint each and more than one-half pint, three dollars per dozen; containing one-half pint each or less, one dollar and fifty cents per dozen; in bottles or other vessels containing more than one quart each, in addition to six dollars per dozen bottles on the quantities in excess of one quart, at the rate of one dollar and ninety cents per gallon. In testimony Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington this 20th day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and thirty-third. THEODORE ROOSEVELT [SEAL.] By the President: ROBERT BACON Secretary of State. The Secretary of State to the Spanish Minister. Serial No.-.] DEPARTMENT Oof State, Washington, February 20, 1909. SIR: In order to meet the wishes of your Government in the matter of the extension to Spain of the authorized reduction in the tariff duties of the United States on Spanish sparkling wines, and in order to remove any possible ground for the exercise by your Government of the right under Article III of the commercial agreement signed between the two countries on August 1, 1906, to rescind any of its concessions made therein to the United States, I have the honor to inform you that the President of the United States deems the concessions made by Spain in favor of the products and manufactures of the United States as reciprocal and equivalent to the grant by the Government of the United States of the reduced duties on all the articles of Spanish production and exportation enumerated in section 3 of the tariff act of the United States approved July 24, 1897. I have therefore the honor to inform you that the President of the United States will issue his proclamation suspending the duties on sparkling wines produced in and exported from Spain and substituting therefor the reduced duties authorized by section 3 of the Dingley tariff. I should be glad to be informed by you as to whether this action, supplementary to the agreement of August 1, 1906, will meet completely the wishes of your Government in the matter. SPANISH LEGATION, Washington, February 20, 1909. MR. SECRETARY: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of this date, in which, while advising me that in order to meet the wishes of your Government in the matter of the extension to Spain of the authorized reduction in the tariff duties of the United States on Spanish sparkling wines, and in order to remove any possible ground for the exercise by my Government of the right under Article III of the commercial agreement signed between the two countries on August 1, 1906, to rescind any of its concessions made therein to the United States, you also informed me that the President of the United States deemed the concession made by Spain in favor of the products and manufactures of the United States as reciprocal and equivalent to the grant by the Government of the United States of the reduced duties on all articles of Spanish production and exportation enumerated in section 3 of the tariff act of July 24, 1897, 22591°-F B 1909-35 will issue his proclamation suspending the present duties on sparkling wines produced in or exported from Spain and substituting therefor the reduced duties authorized by section 3 of the Dingley law. I thank your excellency for the proposed action which you were pleased to make known to me and I agree in every particular of the way suggested by your excellency for this additional part of the agreement of August 1, 1906. I avail myself of this occasion to reiterate to your excellency the assurance of my highest consideration. R. PINA Y MILLET. EXTENSION TO SPAIN OF BENEFITS OF ARTICLE IV OF THE TREATY OF PARIS. File No. 11274/2. The Spanish Chargé to the Secretary of State. [Translation.] SPANISH LEGATION, Washington, October 30, 1908. MR. SECRETARY: The term of 10 years accorded to Spain by the treaty of Paris1 for the special treatment of her merchandise and vessels in the Philippine Islands nearing its termination, I am instructed by His Majesty's Government to inquire whether the Federal Government would see fit to extend the term for a reasonable period and continue the duties of No. 311 of the present tariff of the archipelago on Spainsh red and white common wines; that is to say, 5 cents per liter when imported in barrels or casks and 10 cents, also per liter, when imported in flasks, demijohns, bottles, or other similar receptacles. As regards still fine wines, included in No. 310 of the said tariff, that is to say, all fine wines, red or white, including the so-called generous wines and all red or white dessert or liqueur wines (except those mentioned in No. 311), Spain should wish that the duties placed on the said wines by the commercial agreement concluded by Spain and the United States on August 1, 1906, be applied in the Magellanic Archipelago, viz, 35 cents per gallon on wines imported in casks and $1.25 per case of 12 bottles or jugs containing "each not more than one quart" and more than one "pint," or per case of 24 bottles or jugs containing each not more than one pint," any excess beyond these quantities in the said receptacles being subject to a duty of 4 cents per pint or fractional part thereof, but no separate or additional duty being assessed upon the bottles or jugs. In return for these concessions Spain would be disposed to grant to articles coming from the Philippine Islands the minimum rates of duty of her present tariff or those that may be hereafter fixed, as well as the benefits flowing from her commercial treaties now existing or hereafter concluded, exception being made only as to what appertains exclusively to Portugal and Morocco, with which countries Spain entertains special relations based on proximity and contiguity. 1 See Foreign Relations, 1898, p 831. Spain would further use every means in her power to promote the introduction of Filipino articles into the peninsula. The bonds of close friendship which unite our two countries, the foundation of cordiality upon which their commercial relations stand, and the material benefit derived by the United States from the difference of 1898, lead me to hope that I may be given the opportunity to terminate my provisional mission in reporting to my Government that this matter has been given a solution consonant with its wishes. I avail, etc., File No. 11274/3. L. PASTOR. The Spanish Minister to the Secretary of State. [Translation.] SPANISH LEGATION, Washington, December 19, 1908. MR. SECRETARY: Upon leaving Madrid to return to this city I was specially directed by my Government to negotiate with the United States Government for the purpose of securing an extension, for a reasonable period of time, of the benefits granted to Spain by the treaty of Paris. These negotiations have already been begun by Mr. Pastor in my absence, but as no answer has been received to the note of October 30 last written by the chargé d'affaires for this purpose, I take the liberty of calling your excellency's attention to the subject and of asking you to state whether these wishes have been favorably received by the Federal Government; and if so, what are its intention in this important matter, Spain being willing, in return for this favorable treatment which she asks, to grant other advantages to the products of the Philippine Archipelago. I avail, etc., R. PIÑA Y MILLET. File No. 11274/3. No. 116.] The Secretary of State to the Spanish Minister. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of December 19 inquiring whether this Government is disposed to grant the extension of the benefits which accrued to Spain by Article IV of the treaty of Paris, as requested in Señor Pastor's note of October 30, 1908. Circumstances prevented earlier response to Señor Pastor's note. He refers therein to the early termination (on Apr. 11 next) of the 10-year period accorded to Spain by the treaty of Paris for equality of treatment with the United States for ships and merchandise entering the islands, and he inquires whether the Federal Government is willing to extend this term for a reasonable period and continue the duties of section 311 of the present Philippine tariff in favor of Span ish exportations to the islands, and suggests an amendment of section 310 of that tariff in the sense of a reciprocal arrangement applicable to the trade in still wines exported by Spain to the Philippine Islands, and offering to return a minimum rate of tariff for Philippine merchandise entering Spain. The provisional military administration of the islands was formerly charged with the raising of revenues for the insular government. The present tariff was framed by the Philippine Commission and enacted by Congress. It is local and special, bearing no relation to the tariff of the United States proper. For obvious reasons, and particularly to avert intricate international questions under the mostfavored-nation clause of foreign treaties, the tariff was framed on a single basis, not containing or contemplating differential treatment of the United States, or of any other nation. The merchandise entering the Philippines from the United States pays the same duties as are paid upon entries from any and every country. In this way Spanish merchandise has enjoyed the benefit of the stipulation expressed in Article IV of the treaty of Paris of December 15, 1898being admitted to the ports of the Philippine Islands on the same terms as merchandise and ships of the United States. Although the treaty stipulates for the continuance of that equal treatment for 10 years from the date of the exchange of ratificationsthat is, until April 11, 1909-it does not follow that such equality is to cease after that date. Under existing circumstances, equality of treatment continues as long as a single tariff applies in the Philippine Islands; and until a new tariff system shall be framed for the islands with the approval of the Congress, there is no occasion for any formal extension of the 10-years' privilege stipulated by the treaty. On the contrary, formal extension by conventional arrangement for any certain period would be, as matters now stand, inexpedient, because tending to limit the freedom of the national Congress in considering and establishing future customs relations between the United States and the Philippine dependencies. The determination of those relations, besides being necessarily a part of the organic legislation to fix the status of the Philippine Islands and provide for their administration, is closely allied with the pending problem of recasting the Federal tariff. It will be for the Congress to decide whether the islands shall come within the general system, or have a distinct customs tariff, framed to meet their local needs and providing for differential treatment of commercial interchanges between the islands and the United States proper. The Philippine Commission could not deal with such a question on a reciprocal basis-that is, it could not grant special favor to imports from the United States in exchange for favor to the products of the Philippines entering the United States. It could deal with only one of the dual phases of the problem and it could not well deal with that single phase without prejudice to the larger action of the Congress. Hence, while it is not practicable or expedient to covenant with Spain for the extension, for a specific-or as the note of October 30 styles it, a reasonable period, of the equal treatment now accorded to Spanish merchandise in the Philippine ports of entry, it is seen that this treatment continues after the 11th of April until such time as a new tariff system sanctioned by the Congress may be established |