OP Y.
Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce.
391
Hongkong,
18th, April, 1910.
C
0
17517
sir,
Rece REG2 10 JUN 10)
I beg to inform you that the Committee of
the Chamber has been approached by certain firns who export
cargo to France, with regard to an alteration which has recently been made in the application of the French Tariff to goods imported into that Country from Formosa and other countries which have trade conventions with France.
Hitherto goods of foreign origin trans- -shipped at Hằngkong have not been charged the maximum tariff.
During the past few months, however, the
Customs Authorities at Marseilles have claimed the right to enforce the anximum import duty on the products of Japan and other surrounding countries, if these are transshipped in
Hongkong.
The rule, my Committee understand, is an
old one made at the time of the revision of the French Tariff in 1863 but has hitherto been allowed to remain in abeyance, presumably because the Customs Authorities did not realise that these goods wore being sent via Hongkong. Now, however, the change having been made, a large number of articles of trade are for the first time being charged the higher rate of import duty.
The only exception to this rule is when
goods are brought from the Country of Origin to Hongkong for transshipment in vessels belonging to the same Company as those by which the goods are to be forwarded from the Wolany.
It will thus be apparent that a large amount
of cargo which has hitherto been transshipped in Hongkong will
either be shipped direct from the Country of Origin,
or be
driven