437
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presentation to the Customs of the papers entitling the applicant to receive such Draw- back Certificates.
These Certificates shall be valid tender to the Customs authorities in payment of any duty upon goods imported or exported (transit dues excepted), or shall, in the ea of Drawbacks on foreign goods re-exported abroad within three years from the date of importation, be payable in cash without deduction by the Customs Bank at the place where the import duty was paid.
But if, in connection with any application for a Drawback Certificate, the Customs Authorities discover an attempt to defraud the revenue, the applicant shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five times the amount of the duty whereof he attempted to defraud the Customs, or to a confiscation of the goods.
ARTICLE II.
China agrees to take the necessary steps to provide for a uniform national coinage which shall he legal tender in payment of all duties, taxes, and other obligations throughout the Empire by British as well as Chinese subjects.
ARTICLE III.
China agrees that the duties and li-kin combined levied on goods carried by junks from Hong Kong to the Treaty ports in the Canton Province, and vice versa, shall together not be less than the duties charged by the Imperial Maritime Customs on similar goods carried by steamer,
ARTICLE IV.
Whereas questions have arisen in the past concerning the right of Chinese subjects to invest money in non-Chinese enterprises and companies, and whereas it is a matter of common knowledge that large sums of Chinese capital are so invested, China hereby agrees to recognize the legality of all such investments, past, present, and future.
It being, moreover, of the utmost importance that all shareholders in a Joint-Stock Company should stand on a footing of perfect equality as far as mutual obligations are concerned, China further agrees that Chinese subjects who have or may become share- British Joint-Stock Company shall be held to have accepted, by the very holders in any act of becoming shareholders, the Charter of Incorporation or Memorandum and Articles of Association of such Company, and regulations framed thereunder as interpreted by British Courts, and that Chinese Courts shall enforce compliance therewith by such Chinese shareholders, if a suit to that effect be entered, provided always that their liability shall not be other or greater than that of British shareholders in the same Company.
Similarly the British Government agree that British subjects investing in Chinese Companies shall be under the same obligations as the Chinese shareholders in such Companies.
The foregoing shall not apply to cases which have already been before the Courts and been dismissed.
ARTICLE V.
The Chinese Government undertake to remove within the next two years the The Chinese Government artificial obstructions to navigation in the Canton River.
also agree to improve the accommodation for shipping in the harbour of Canton, and to take the necessary steps to maintain that improvement, such work to be carried out by the Imperial Maritime Customs, and the cost thereof to be defrayed by a tax on goods landed and shipped by British and Chinese alike according to a scale to be arranged between the merchants and Customs.
The Chinese Government are aware of the desirability of improving the navigability by steamer of the waterway between Ichang and Chungking, but are also fully aware that such improvement might involve heavy expense, and would affect the interests of the population of the Provinces of Szechuen, Hunan, and Hupeh. It is, therefore, mutually agreed that until improvements can be carried out steamship owners shall be allowed, subject to approval by the Imperial Maritime Customs, to erect, at their own expense, appliances for hauling through the rapids. Such appliances shall be at the disposal of all vessels, both steamers and junks, subject to regulations to be drawn up
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by the Imperial Maritime Customs. These appliances shall not obstruct the waterway or interfere with the free passage of junks. Signal stations and channel marks where and when necessary shall be erected by the Imperial Maritime Customs. Should any Fptical scheme be presented for improving the waterway and assisting navigation without injury to the local population or cost to the Chinese Government, it shall be considered by the latter in a friendly spirit.
ARTICLE VI.
The Chinese Government agree to make arrangements to give increased facilities at the open ports for bonding and for repacking merchandise in bond, and, on official representation being made by the British Authorities, to grant the privileges of a bonded warehouse to any warehouse which it is established to the satisfaction of the Customs Authorities affords the necessary security to the revenue.
Such warehouses will be subject to regulations, including a scale of fees according to commodities, distance from Custom-House, and horrs of working, to be drawn up by the Customs Authorities, who will meet the couvenierce of merchants so far as is coin- patible with the protection of the revenue,
ARTICLE VII.
Inasmuch as the British Government afford protection to Chinese trade marks against infringement, imitation, or colourable imitation by British subjects, the Chinese Government undertake to afford protection to British trade marks against infringement, imitation, or colourable imitation by Chinese subjects.
The Chinese Government further undertake that the Superintendents of Northern and of Southern trade shall establish offices within their respective jurisdictions under control of the Imperial Maritime Customs, where foreign trade marks may be registered on payment of a reasonable fee.
ARTICLE VIII.
PREAMBLE.
The Chinese Government, recognizing that the system of levying li-kin and other dues on goods at the place of production, in transit, and at destination, impedes the free circulation of commodities and injures the interests of trade, hereby undertake to discard completely those means of raising revenue with the limitation mentioned in Section 8.
The British Government, in return, consent to allow a surtax in excess of the Tariff rates for the time being in force to be imposed on foreign goods imported by British subjects and a surtax in addition to the export duty on Chinese produce destined for export abroad or coastwise.
It is clearly understood that, after li-kin barriers and other stations for taxing goods in transit bave been removed, no attempt shall be made to revive them in any form or under any pretext whatsoever; that in no case shall the surtax on foreign imports exceed the equivalent of one and a-half times the import duty leviable in terms of the Final Protocol signed by China and the Powers on the 7th day of September, 1901; that payment of the import duty and surtax shall secure for foreign imports, whether in the hands of Chinese or non-Chinese subject, in original packages or otherwise, complete immunity from all other taxation, examination, or delay; that the total amount of taxa- tion leviable on native produce for export abroad shall, under no circumstances, exceed 7 per cent. ad valorem.
Keeping these fundamental principles steadily in view, the High Contracting Parties have agreed upon the following methods of procedure :----
Section 1. The Chinese Government undertake that all barriers of whatsoever kind, collecting li-kin or such like dues or duties, shall be permanently abolished on all roads, railways, and waterways in the Eighteen Provinces of China and the Three Eastern Provinces. This provision does not apply to the Native Custom-Houses at present in existence on the seaboard or waterways, at Open Ports, ou land routes, and on land frontiers of China.
Sec. 2. The British Government agree that foreign goods on importation, in addition to the effective 5 per cent. import duty as provided for in the Protocol of 1901, shall pay a special surtax equivalent to one and a-half times the said duty to compensate
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