Directory_and_Chronicle_1903 — Page 112

THE BRITISH COMMERCIAL TREATY WITH CHINA

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Section 6.- Lekin on salt is hereby abolished and the amount of said lekin and of other taxes and contributions shall be added to the salt duty, which shall becollected at place of production or at first station after entering the province where it is to be con⋅ sumed.

The Chinese Government shall be at liberty to establish salt reporting offices at which boats conveying salt which is being moved under salt passes or certificates may be required to stop for purposes of examination and to have their certificates viséd, but at such offices no lekin or transit taxation shall be levied and no barriers or obstructions of any kind shall be erected.

Section 7.-The Chinese Government may recast the Export Tariff with specific duties as far as practicable, on a scale not exceeding five per cent. ad valorem; but existing export duties shall not be raised until at least six months' notice has been given.

In cases where existing export duties are above five per cent. they shall be reduced to not more than that rate.

An additional special surtax of one half the export duty payable for the time being, in lieu of internal taxation and lekin, may be levied at time of export on goods export- ed either to foreign countries or coastwise.

In the case of silk, whether hand or filature reeled, the total export duty shall not exceed a specific rate equivalent to not more than five per cent. ad valorem. Half of this specific duty may be levied at the first Native Custom House in the interior which the silk may pass and in such case a certificate shall be given as provided for in section 3, and will be accepted by the Custom House concerned at place of export in lieu of half the export duty. Cocoons passing Native Custom Houses shall be liable to no taxation whatever. Silk not exported but consumed in China is liable to the consump- tion tax mentioned and under conditions mentioned in section 8.

Section 8-The abolition of the lekin system in China and the abandonment of all other kinds of internal taxation on foreign imports and on exports will diminish the revenue materially. The surtax on foreign imports and exports and on coastwise exports is intended to compensate in a measure for this loss of revenue, but there remains the loss of lekin revenue on internal trade to be met, and it is therefore agreed that the Chinese Government are at liberty to impose a Consumption Tax on articles of Chinese origin not intended for export.

This tax shall be levied only at places of consumption and not on goods while in transit, and the Chinese Government solemnly undertake that the arrangements which they may make for its collection shall in no way interfere with foreign goods or with native goods for export. The fact of goods being of foreign origin shall of itself free them from all taxation, delay, or stoppage, after having passed the Custom House.

Foreign goods which bear a similarity to native goods shall be furnished by the Custom House, if required by the owner, with a protective certificate for each package, on payment of import duty and surtax, to prevent the risk of any dispute in the

interior.

Native goods brought by junks to Open Ports, if intended for local consumption- irrespective of the nationality of the owner of the goods-shall be reported at the Native Custom House only, where the consumption tax may be levied.

China is at liberty to fix the amount of this (consumption) tax, which may vary according to the nature of the merchandise concerned, that is to say, according as the articles are necessaries of life or luxuries; but it shall be levied at a uniform rate on goods of the same description, no matter whether carried by junk, sailing-vessel, or steamer. As mentioned in Section 3, the Consumption Tax is not to be levied within foreign settlements or concessions.

Section 9-An excise equivalent to double the import duty as laid down in the Protocol of 1901 is to be charged on all machine-made yarn and cloth manufactured in China, whether by foreigners at the Open Ports or by Chinese anywhere in China.

A rebate of the import duty and two-thirds of the Import Surtax is to be given on raw cotton imported from foreign countries, and of all duties, including Consump- tion Tax, paid on Chinese raw cotton used in mills in China.

Chinese machine-made yarn or cloth having paid excise is to be free of Export Duty, Export Surtax, Coast Trade Duty, and Consumption Tax. This Excise is to be collected through the Imperial Maritime Customs,

The same principal and procedure are to be applied to all other products of foreign type turned out by machinery, whether by foreigners at the Open Ports or by Chinese anywhere in China.

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