Directory_and_Chronicle_1934 — Page 165

SINO-FOREIGN TREATIES

129

The President of the National Government of the Republic of China: His Excellency Dr. Chengting T. Wang, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the National Government of the Republic of China;

The President of the French Republic:

His Excellency Count D. de Martel, Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary of the French Republic to. China, Com- mander de la Legion d'Honneur,

Who, having communicated to each other their full powers, found in, good and due form, have agreed upon the following Articles:

Article I.-All the provisions which appear in the treaties hitherto con- cluded and in force between China and France relating to rates of duty on imports and exports of merchandise, drawbacks, transit dues and tonnage dues in China shall be annulled and become inoperative, and the principle, of complete autonomy shall henceforth apply in respect of the Customs tariff and related matters, subject, however, to the condition that each of the High Contracting Parties shall enjoy in the territories, possessions, colonies and protectorates of the other, in relation to the above specified and related mat- ters, treatment in no way less favourable than that effectively enjoyed by any other country.

:

Article II.-The Nationals of either of the High Contracting Parties shall not be compelled under any pretext whatever to pay within the territories possessions, colonies and protectorates of the other any duties, internal charges or taxes upon their importations and exportations higher or other than those paid by nationals of the country or by nationals of any other country.

Article III. The present Treaty has been written in Chinese and French and the two texts have been carefully compared and verified, but in the event of there being a difference of meaning between the two, the French text shall be held to prevail.

The present Treaty shall be ratified as soon as possible and the ratifications shall be exchanged in Paris. It shall come into force on the day on which the two Governments shall have notified each other that ratification has been effected.

In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Treaty in duplicate and have affixed thereto their seals.

{

Done at Nanking this twenty-second day of the twelfth month of the seventeenth year of the Republic of China, corresponding to the twenty-second day of December, nireteen hundred and twenty-eight.

(Signed) Chengting T. Wang. (Signed D. DE MARTEL,

THE SINO-NORWEGIAN, SINO-NETHERLANDS,

AND SINO-SWEDISH TREATIES....

4.

1

On September 12, 1926, Dr. C T. Wang sent practically identical notes to the Netherlands Minister and the Norwegian and Swedish Chargé d'Affaires at Peiping, suggesting the following points for the readjustment, of the tariff relations between China and the Powers concerned:

1. All provisions contained in the treaties now existing between China and ............ relating to rates of duty on imports and exports of merchandise, drawbacks, transit dues and tonnage dues in China shall be annulled and the principle of complete national tariff autonomy shall apply.

2. In Customs, and related matters the principle of reciprocal and undis- criminatory treatment shall apply.

5

Page 165Page 166