Directory_and_Chronicle_1885 — Page 1027

326

COMMERCIAL TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE AND ANNAM.

When the Annamite Government shall intend to avail itself of this right of suspending the exportation of silk and go-liem wood, it shall notify, at least one month in advance, the French resident at Hué; it shall it, the same manner notify a month in advance the time at which the exportation of these commodities shall be again allowed.

No interdictions, with the exception of those affecting arms and munitions, which cannot be transported without special authorisation by the Annamite Govern- ment, shall apply to merchandise in transit to or from Yunnan; but the Aunamite Government may take measures of precaution to prevent prohibited articles being landed on its territory.

Merchandise in transit for Yunnan shall only pay Customs dues on their entering Annamite territory when they arrive by sea or across the frontier of China (province of Yunnan).

No supplementary or accessory dues shall be levied on goods regularly introduced on their passage from one province or town to another.

It is understood that goods imported from abroad into the open ports, or ex- ported to other countries from the open ports, in Chinese vessels or those belonging to Annam, shall he subject to the same interdictions and to the same duties as those imported from or exported to foreign countries under any other flag; and that these duties shall be collected by the same employés and lodged in the same offices as those on goods imported or exported under foreign flags.

Art. III-Light and anchorage dues are fixed at three-tenths of a tael per registered ton for vessels entering and leaving with a cargo, and at fifteenth-hundredths of a tael per ton for vessels entering in ballast and leaving with a cargo, or entering with a cargo and leaving in ballast.

Vessels are considered as being in ballast when the cargo is less than one-twentieth part of their tonnage and of less value than five france per ton.

dues.

Vessels entering in ballast and leaving in ballast shall pay no light or anchorage

Art. IV. Goods sent from Saigon to one of the open ports of the kingdom of Annam, or to the province of Yunnan via the Nhi-ha, and those sent from one of these ports or from the province of Yunnan to Saigon, shall be subject only to one- half the dues paid by goods coming from elsewhere or having any other destination.

In order to avoid all fraud and as proof that the goods come from Saigon, vessels shall there show their papers to the captain of the port of commerce and they shall be there signed by the Aunamite Consul.

The Customs may require vessels leaving Saigon to give security for the half of the dues from which they are exempt by virtue of paragraph 1 of the present Article, and if the security does not appear valuable, the Custome may require the deposit of this half of the dues at the depôt, which shall be returned upon justifica- tion.

Art. V.-Trade by land between the province of Bien-hoa and that of Binh- thuan shall remain provisionally under the existing conditions, that is to say, no new dues shall be established nor shall any modification of the existing dues be esta- blished.

In the year following the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty a supplementary convention shall regulate the conditions to which this trade by land shall be subjected.

In any case the exportation of horses from the kingdom of Annam to the province of Bien-hoa shall not be subjected to heavier taxes than those now in force.

Art. VI. To assure the collection of the dues and in order to avoid disputes which might arise between foreigners and the Annamite authorities, the French Government shall place at the disposal of the Annamite Government the officials necessary for the direction of the Customs service, under the supervision and authority of the minister charged with this branch of the public service. It shall also assist the Anna- mite Government to organise on the coasts an efficient service for the protection of trade.