JAPAN: TREATY REVISION.
CONFIDENTIAL.
No. 1.
| 18727
566
[December 414 JUN 00
SECTION 2,
Sir E. Satow to the Marquess of Salisbury.-(Received December 4.)
(No. 168.)
Tokió, October 14, 1899. My Lord,
WITH reference to your Lordship's telegram No. 22 of the 12th instant, instructing me, in accordance with your Lordship's previous telegram No. 19 of the 6th August, to present a protest to the Japanese Government respecting the duties imposed on the exportation of tea from Formosa, I have the honour to inclose copy of a note which I have accordingly addressed to-day to the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
ERNEST SATOW,
Inclosure in No. 1.
Sir E. Satow to Viscount Aoki,
M. le Ministre,
Tokió, October 14, 1899. IN reply to your Excellency's note of the 31st July, respecting the proposed Tariff of duties on certain articles exported from Formosa, I had the honour to state to your Excel- lency that I would lose no time in transmitting it to my Government, and I have now the honour to acquaint you with their views.
The export duties from Formosa, it is understood, are considered necessary for revenuc purposes, and no objection would be taken to their imposition with such an object, so long as the application of the Tariff had not the effect of creating differential treatment to the disadvantage of British merchants and consumers.
The export Tariff in question contains thirty-three items, of which fourteen enumerate products of the island that, on transportation to Japan proper, are liable to port clearance daties equal in amount to the export duties, with the exception, however, of Nos. 19 and 20, being Oolong and Powching teas, in respect of which, while the export duties are 1 yen 60 sen and 1 yen 20 sen per picul, the port clearance duties are fixed at 1 yen 60 sen respectively.
There is practically no consumption of Formosan tea in either China or Japan, and the teas referred to, whether landed in Japan, at a port of China, or at Hong Kong, are in transit for the United States, Great Britain, the Continent of Europe, Australia, or the Dutch Colonies.
No export duties are levied in Japan proper, and the result is that the teas landed in the first place at Amoy or Hong Kong for transhipment to Great Britain, pay an export duty, which is higher than the tax collected on those which are shipped to the United States via Kobe.
Her Majesty's Government are of opinion that it is contrary to the spirit of the Treaty of Commerce between Great Britain and Japan, as well as to that of the Com- mercial Treaties concluded by Japan with other Powers, to impose an export duty on goods leaving a particular port, and not to charge an exactly equivalent amount on goods of the same character and origin going abroad from another port, and they have accordingly instructed me to protest to the Japanese Government against the measure in question.
I have, &c. (Signed)
ERNEST SATOW.
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