Sir Julian Pauncefote to Mr. Day.
New London, Conn., July 20, 1898.
Sir: By desire of the Marquis of Salisbury I have the honor to invite your attention to a decision given by the United States Board of General Appraisers on April 19 last, overruling a protest on the part of importers at Boston against the assessment, by the customs authority of that port, of a countervailing duty of 2.50 marks per 100 kilograms on a consignment of refined sugar from Liverpool.
The effect of this decision will be to apply the countervailing duty enacted by the tariff act of 1897 to imports of British refined sugars in cases where the raw sugar is not proved to have originated from a country which does not give bounties on sugar.
It appears to Her Majesty’s Government that, while the wording of section 5 of the tariff act may be held to cover refined sugar coming from a country which does not produce raw sugar, there is some hardship in applying the full countervailing duty imposed on the produce of a particular bounty-giving country to the refined article in which free cane sugar as well as bounty-fed sugar may have been used. So far as Her Majesty’s Government are aware, it has usually been held, in regard to the tariff treatment of refined sugar, that this article is the produce of the country where it has been refined. If it is not deemed possible under the present tariff law to extend this treatment to British refined sugars I am instructed to ask whether the [Page 374] United States Government would be willing to alleviate the hardship complained of by fixing the countervailing duty on such sugars, in all cases of doubt as to the origin of the raw material used, at as low a point as possible.
It would also be a great relief if the United States Government would consent to accept, in the case of sugars, the produce of British West India colonies or other nonbounty-giving countries, a declaration of origin by the importer, without the consular certificate at present required.
Hoping that this representation may meet with the favorable consideration of your Government, I have, etc.,