year
trade during the succeeding decade has been of a remarkable character, the sport in the 1893 probably amounting to somewhere between 70,000 and 89,000 tons, representing
of value
A
000,000 sterling.
Under the Tariff which
is still in force in Japan this
has been subjected import duty of 5 cents per
picul
at current rate
of exchange 8/9d
the New Tariff
per ton : under
"ad valorem"
duty of 10% will be imposed;
The
which under Article I Protocol is, within six months
to be converted into a
duty
specific
on the basis
of
the medium
shown
by
the
of prices
Customs' return during the six Calendar months preceding the date of the Protocol, viz 16th
July 1894.
That
Her Britannic Majesty's Govern-
ment should have conceded the
principle of calculating based upon the medium value ruling during a previous arbitrary and fixed period, appears to us most unsatisfactory and that the Japanese Government should
raise
no
objection to such proposal will be readily appreciated when the following facts
are taken into consideration.
1. It happens that the prices ruling for Refined Sugar during the six months previous to the date of the Protocol were higher than at any
time in the history
of the Trade, and it follows therefore that the duty will be
calculated upon an
high value,
which
may probably,
we can estimate,
reach $9. per picul, meaning
a
specific duty of 90 cents per picul,