At various times since then the Viscount de Caravellas has said to me that
they hoped this could be and would be done in the new tariff.
This last, to go into effect after the 1st July next, has just been
publislied,
[Page 87]
(31 March,) and of which
I will send a copy as soon as a suitable one can be procured.
On considering its provisions, I was surprised, after what they had said, to
find that there was to be no diminution whatever in the (pauta) valuation or duty on any article from the United States,
except a small reduction in that on kerosene, which is largely imported.
On lard there is to be actually an increased duty of 17/20 of a cent per
pound, making the whole duty (new) equal to 4¾ cents per pound.
Lumber about $7 per 1,000 feet.
Rosin at $1.15 per barrel.
Turpentine about 9½ cents per gallon.
In view of this, and hoping that there still remains an opportunity, before
the 1st July, to have some return for our liberality, I addressed a note on
the 15th instant to the Viscount de Caravellas, of which the annex hereto is
a copy.
Certainly so excellent an opportunity for this Government to do something for
the benefit of our interests, and in return for what has been done for
theirs in the United States, ought not to be allowed to pass and still
hoping that I may be able to accomplish something in this direction, for
which I have been making efforts ever since my first arrival, I trust this
note and what I have done may meet your approval.
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Partridge to
Viscount de Caravellas.
United
States Legation,
Petropolis, April 15,
1874.
On the 16th April, 1873, I had the honor of addressing his excellency the
Viscount de Caravellas, minister and secretary of state for foreign
affairs, a note touching the condition of the commercial relations
between the United States and Brazil, showing the very large amount of
export duty levied on the coffee of Brazil exported to the United
States, (three-fifths of the whole Brazilian crop;) the exaggerated pauta and high import duties levied on articles
imported into Brazil from the United States, whereby the great
inequality of commercial movement (of products) between the United
States and Brazil was increased, or at any rate prevented from finding
its proper reciprocity, and a positive impediment was placed to the
development of interchanges which it is the interest of both countries
to promote.
In that note I also called the attention of the minister of foreign
affairs to the fact that the duty on coffee imported into the United
States (3 cents per pound) has been abolished, and that the whole of the
difference in price resulting had inured to the benefit of the producers
of coffee (fazendeiros) in Brazil.
In that note I also gave tables and statistics, showing, incontestably,
the large receipts and financial advantages resulting to the imperial
treasury from the duties (both import and export) levied on that
commerce, and demonstrated the percentage of the imperial
customs-revenues levied on the commerce with the United States
alone.
I made these statements for the purpose of inviting the attention of the
imperial government to those facts in view of the then proposed revision
of the pauta and tariff on imports; and I would
respectfully invite again, in connection with this communication, the
attention of the minister of foreign affairs to that note of the 16th
April, 1873.
The receipt of that note was acknowledged on the 29th of May, 1873, (D.
G. 2060,) and it was stated that his excellency the Viscount de Rio
Branco, minister of fazenda, to whom it had been sent, would take its
statements into full consideration; but that no steps could be taken
then, nor until the legislative body had fixed the bases of the
projected reform in the custom-house tariff.
[Page 88]
Since then, at several interviews, his excellency the minister of foreign
affairs has been good enough to say to me that the statements of that
note (April 16, 1873) were receiving due attention; and that it was
hoped that in the new tariff which would be promulgated after the report
of the commission of review had been made, there would be such a
satisfactory re-adjustment of duties on articles (the produce of the
United States) imported into Brazil as would respond to the liberality
of the United States in wholly abolishing the duty on the great
Brazilian product.
I have since seen, by a decree lately published, that the new tariff has
been adopted on the report of the commission, and that it will go into
effect on and after the 1st of July next.
I had hoped, from what the minister of foreign affairs had stated to me,
to find in this new tariff very large reductions, both in the pauta and in the rate of duty, upon articles the
produce of the United States; but after reading the report and
inspecting the proposed tariff I regret to be obliged to say that it
appears there is to be no reduction of duty, except on one article,
(kerosene;) a large increase on another, (lard;) no change in all the
rest; and that thus there will be no adequate response to the liberality
of the United States tariff toward Brazilian products.
If the report and project of law shows the duties to be levied on
articles from the United States after the 1st July next, then the
Government of the United States will be grievously disappointed in its
just expectations, after the representations I have made to Washington,
based on the assurances of his excellency the minister of foreign
affairs to me.
In order to show the small extent of the relief in one case and the
aggravated duty in another to be expected under the new (proposed)
tariff, I append a table showing the late, present, and proposed duties
on six articles the produce of the United States, and which constitute
the great bulk of imports from the United States into Brazil:
| Names of articles imported into Brazil chiefly of the produce
of the United States. |
Old duty, 1873, before the reduction of percentages. |
Present duty, 1874, after reduction of the extra
percentage. |
| Flour, per kilogram |
8 reis and 78 per cent |
8 reis and 40 per cent. |
| Equal to, to per barrel |
1$255 |
987 reis. |
| Lumber, per square meter |
100 reis, 28 per cent. and one-sixth |
100 reis and 40 per cent. |
| Equal to, per 1,000 feet1 |
3$444 |
13$010. |
| Kerosene, per kilogram |
120 reis, 28 per cent. and one-sixth |
120 reis and 40 per cent. |
| Equal to per 10 gallons |
5$087 |
4$922. |
| Lard, per kilogram |
120 reis, 28 per cent. and one-sixth |
120 reis and 40 per cent. |
| Equal to, per pound |
80 reis |
77 reis. |
| Rosin, per kilogram |
15 reis, 28 per cent. and one-sixth |
15 reis and 40 per cent. |
| Equal, to per barrel |
2$207 |
2$142. |
| Turpentine, per kilogram |
40 reis, 28 per cent, and one-sixth |
40 reis and 40 per cent. |
| Equal to, per 10 gallons |
1$850 |
1$792. |
|
New duty under proposed tariff in force after July 1,
1874. |
Remarks. |
|
| Flour, per kilogram |
8 reis and 40 per cent |
} |
No change |
{ |
Equal to 52 to 54 cts. per barrel. |
| Equal to, per barrel |
987 reis |
| Lumber, per square meter |
100 reis and 40 per cent. |
} |
No change |
{ |
Equal to $6.90 per 1,000 feet. |
| Equal to, per 1,000 feet |
13$010 |
| Kerosene, per kilogram |
80 reis and 40 per cent. |
} |
A reduction of 56 reis per
kilogram. |
{ |
Duty (new) equal to $1.73 per box of 10
gallons. |
| Equal to, per 10 gallons |
3$281 |
| Lard, per kilogram |
150 reis and 40 per cent. |
{ |
An increase of 17-20ths of a
cent. per pound, 42 reis per kilogram added. |
Duty (new) is equal to 4½ cents per
pound. |
| Equal to, per pound |
95 reis |
| Rosin, per kilogram |
15 reis and 40 per cent. |
} |
No change |
$1.15 per barrel. |
| Equal to, per barrel |
2$142 |
| Turpentine, per kilogram |
40 reis and 40 per cent. |
} |
No change |
{ |
95 cents per box of 10 gallons. |
| Equal to, per 10 gallons |
1$792 |
From this table it thus appears: 1st. That in the articles of flour,
lumber, rosin, and turpentine no change whatever
in the rate or amount of duty is to take place; 2d. That in the article
of lard there is, so far from benefit, on the contrary, an aggravation
of or addition to the duty of 42 reis (equal to 17/20 of a cent per
pound increase) per kilogram; and that on the single article of kerosene
there is a proposed deduction of only 56 reis per kilogram, (equal to 1
cent per pound, or 40 cents per box containing 10 gallons, decrease)
below the present duty; and that, the proposed new rate of duty
[Page 89]
on kerosene, (112 reis in all
per kilogram, 80 reis+40%) is equal to nearly 75 per cent, ad valorem on its cost in the United States.
I am persuaded that his excellency the minister of foreign affairs will
agree to the assertion that these proposed new duties do not exhibit the
liberal spirit toward the products of the United States which that
Government, after its own course with regard to coffee, had a fair right
to expect.
By the abolition of the duty on coffee the United States gave up a very
large revenue, (nine millions of dollars,) nearly eighteen thousand
contos of reis. The result was, as might have been expected in every
case of such reduction, a very large increase in the consumption of
coffee, and especially of the coffee of Brazil. And it cannot be doubted
that, in like manner, a liberal reduction of duty in Brazil on the
produce of the United States would result in a very large increase in
their consumption here, so that, while the duty was lessened, the
movement and imports would be so largely increased that the imperial
treasury would receive still larger sums from lower rates of duty.
It is hardly necessary for me to do more than present this table for the
consideration of the imperial government. Nor is there any necessity for
me to speak of the advantages which must result to both countries from a
just and liberal reciprocity in their respective tariffs toward the
products of the other. These things are now well understood, and, the
advantages being admitted, the question with every government is, how
far the condition of the country and the results to its treasury will
admit of the application of a principle which will be followed by
acknowledged benefits.
Of its own necessities and policy, of course, the imperial government is
the best judge; and it rests with that government alone to say what
shall be the measure and amount of the duties it proposes to levy on its
imports. But the wonderful progress which has been made in Brazil in
these late years, and the enlightened and liberal policy which the
imperial government has pursued in the removal of the additional
percentages, in the abolition of vexatious delays in entering, loading,
and clearing the mail-steamers, and in the removal of many obstacles to
prompt dispatch, and with such manifest advantage and increase to the
commerce of the empire—all these things easily induce every well-wisher
of Brazil to believe that the imperial government is willing to continue
to adopt all such liberal proceedings as may cause its still further
development and increase.
These considerations had given rise to what I have called the just
expectations of the Government of the United States, in view of the
proposed re-adjustment of its tariff by Brazil; and that Government
entertained certainly a reasonable expectation that, in view of what had
taken place, such a reduction in the duties on the articles named would
be accorded by the imperial government in acknowledgment and return for
the entire abolition in the United States of the duty on coffee. Yet it
has been shown by the table above given that on four of the principal
articles (flour, lumber, rosin, turpentine) which come from the United
States no change whatever has taken place; on one important article
(lard) a very heavy addition has been made to the present duty, and that
on one article alone (kerosene) a reduction has been accorded, which yet
leaves the proposed new duty equal to three-fourths or more of the prime cost.
The hope is still entertained, since the new tariff does not begin until
the 1st of July next, that the imperial government may yet be induced to
lower the duties on all these articles.
It is understood, of course, that the imperial government has the power
to modify its own decree; and since it certainly was in its power to
adopt, alter, or reject any portion of the recommendations of the
commission of review, it appears equally competent to make now any
further alteration or modification which it may think well to
establish.
I trust that his excellency the minister of foreign affairs will agree
with me that so excellent an opportunity of responding to the liberality
of the Government of the United States ought not to be allowed to pass
without such action on the part of the imperial government as could not
fail to assure the United States of the desire of Brazil to further, in
every just and practicable way, the most important commerce which this
country holds with any other one nation; and which could not fail also
to strengthen and make lasting the very friendly relations and
commercial alliance between the two principal powers on the American
continent.
It will be easily understood, of course, that I do not ask that this
reduction shall be made expressly, as of duties upon articles because the produce of the United States, since,
if that were done, by that name, it might give rise to exigencies of other countries asking for themselves (without
any such reason as exists in the case of the United States) an equal
reduction on other articles because the products of their respective
countries, when those countries had not only not abolished and reduced,
but have actually increased, their duties on Brazilian products.
To avoid all such inconvenience it is respectfully suggested—in case the
imperial government still has the disposition to respond to the
liberality of Brazil’s largest customer, and it be still in the power of
this government to modify its own decree—that
[Page 90]
there might he made such reductions in the duty on
the articles named above as would accomplish this desire of both
governments.
In again urgently inviting the attention of his excellency the minister
of foreign affairs to this very important matter, which, if it can be
accomplished, will be one of the most welcome things that could be
reported to Washington from Brazil, I avail myself of the opportunity to
renew to his excellency, the minister of foreign affairs, the assurances
of my complete esteem and consideration.
To His Excellency Viscount de
Caravellas,
Minister and Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs.
