Directory_and_Chronicle_1885 — Page 1030

I

COMMERCIAL TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE AND ANNAM

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in order to watch his interests when the verification is proceeded with for the liquida- tion of the dues, in default of which, any sequent claim shall be null and of no effect.

If the merchant cannot agree with the Anuamite employé on the value to be fixed each party shall call in two or three merchants to examine the goods, and the highest price which shall be offered shall be considered the value of the said goods.

The dues shall be calculated on the net weight, tare being deducted. If the merchant cannot agree with the Annamite employé as to the ajunt of tare, each party shall select a certain number of the bales of cases; these a..ull be first weighed in gross, then tared, and the lot on which there is the least tare shall be taken as fixing the amount of tare on the others.

If during the course of the verification any difficulty arise which cannot bạ decided, the merchant may claim the intervention of the Consul, who shall imme- diately submit the matter to the Chief of Customs, and these two shall endeavour to arrive at an amicable arrangement; but the claim must be made within the twenty- four hours or it cannot entertained. While the dispute remains unsettled, the Chief of Customs shall not enter the subject of it in the books, in order to afford every latitude for the examination and solution of the difficulty.

Goods which shall have been subjected to damage shall enjoy a reduction of dueu proportionate to their depreciation. This shall be equitably determined and, if it is necessary, by experts on each side, as herein before provided for.

Art. XVIII.-A vessel having entered one of the open ports of Au, aw! not having then taken out the permit for discharge mentioned in the preceding article, may, within two days after its arrival, leave and go to another port without paying either anchorage or customs dues, which shall be ultimately discharged at the port where the sale of the goods is effected.

Art. XIX.-Import dues shall be paid by the captains and merchants as soon as the goods shall have been discharged and verified. Export dues shall be paid in the same way upon the loading of the goods. When the tonnage and customs dues payable by a vessel shall have been paid in full, the Chief of Customs shall give a general clearance, on the exhibition of which the Consul shall return the ship's papers to the captain and allow him to leave.

It shall, however, if the captain consent, be lawful for the Customs administra- tion (in order to facilitate the operations of trade) to calculate the dues according to the bills of lading without its being necessary to discharge the goods in order to ascertain their value and quantity.

Art. XX. After the expiration of the two days mentioned in Art. XVIII., and before proceeding to discharge, each merchant vessel shall pay in full the light and anchorage dues fixed by Article III. No other due, fee, or surcharge shall be required under any pretext.

On the payment of the aforesaid dues the Chief of Customs shall deliver to the captain or the consignee a receipt in form of certificate stating that the light and anchorage dues have been fully paid, and on the exhibition of this certificate to the Chief of Customs at any other port to which it may be convenient for him to go, the captain shall be free from payment again of these dues for his vessel, each foreign vessel being liable to these only once on each voyage from a foreign country to Annam.

Art. XXI.—A foreign vessel entering one of the open poris and wishing to discharge a part only of its cargo shall pay Customs dues only on the part discharged; the remainder of the cargo may be carried to another port and there sol 1. 'The dues shall then be vaid.

In cases where foreigners, having paid in one port the dues on their gools, wish to re-export thern and end them for sale to another port, they shall notify th: Consul or Consular Agent; the latter shall inform the Chier of Customs, who, after having verified the identity of the goods and the perfect integrity of the packages, shall give to the applicants a declaration attesting that the dues leviable on such goodę have in fact been paid.