No. 329.
Mr. Carter
to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Legation of
the United States,
Caracas, April 22, 1882.
(Received May 3.)
No. 107.]
Sir: Referring to my No. 67, relative to the decree
of June 11, 1881, imposing additional duties of 30 per cent. on products
from Europe and the United States, when transhipped from any West Indian
port into Venezuela, I have to inform you that I have repeatedly and fully
discussed, with the minister of exterior relations, the effect of this law
upon the commerce of both Venezuela and the United States, and have entered
a friendly remonstrance against its enforcement. The minister gave me
respectful hearing, and requested me to put my views in writing. He also
submitted my reflections to the President of the Republic. In the absence of
any instructions from the Department on the point, I concluded to rest the
case on a verbal statement thereof. In conclusion, I suggested that the
government, if the law should be enforced, might mitigate its hardships upon
American commerce by giving the American line of steamers, not only the
benefit of the rebate provided for in Article 2 of the law, but by allowing
them, through their smaller steamers, the right, without forfeiture of their
American charters to distribute from Puerto Cabello to Maracaibo and other
subsidiary points the cargoes designed for them. Or else the administrative
officer, the President, might construe this law, so that the disabilities
attached to transhipment of articles at Curacoa for Maracaibo should not be
extended to such articles from the United States as were covered by through
and continuous consular invoices. I entertained the hope for some time that
one of these expedients for relief would be adopted, but my expectations
thus far have not been satisfactorily realized.
On April 12 instant an executive decree, approved by the federal council, was
enacted looking to the enforcement of the decree of June 4, 1881, and the
same was promulgated April 20 instant in the Gaceta Oficial. I inclose a
printed official copy and translation of the executive decree referred to.
The law of June 4, 1881, goes into effect May 3, 1882.
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The executive can yet give the relief sought, in either of the suggested
methods, if so disposed; and the language of the decree just promulgated in
Article 2 thereof is supposed to look to such measure of relief. It imposes
restrictions upon national vessels when engaged in distributing foreign
cargoes from La Guayra, Puerto Cabello, or Carupano to other ports, in that
it forbids participation currently by them in the coasting trade proper. The
form of expression is also peculiar. The article declares:
The vessels receiving transhipments in La Guayra, &c., of
merchandise, &c., to be carried to other eastern or western
ports of the republic, &c., when (or if) they are national shall
not be allowed to carry at the same time merchandise in the coasting
trade.
This conditional form of expression would suggest that other than national
vessels might engage in the work of distribution of foreign cargoes in these
cases, and the restrictions imposed upon the national vessels makes the
impression that the purpose of the decree is to discourage them from
engaging in this particular trade. The representatives here of the American
line are inclined to take this view of the law, and are disposed to construe
it as a tacit concession in favor of American commerce.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure in No.
107.—Translation.]
The President of the United States of Venezuela, in execution of Article
2 of the law of June 4, 1881, which establishes a duty of 30 per cent.
additional on the duties levied in conformity with the tariff now in
force upon merchandise imported from the Antilles, and with the
affirmative vote of the federal council, decrees:
- Article 1. Produce, merchandise, and
chattels proceeding from Europe or the United States of North
America, destined to the eastern or western, ports of the
republic, to which the vessels having them on board do not
propose to proceed, and which for this circumstance have to be
examined and cleared at the custom-houses of La Guayra, Puerto
Cabello, or Carupano shall have a rebate of five-hundredths of a
Bolivar on each kilogram that the merchandise contained in the
invoice may represent, which will be deducted from the duties of
importation that they may bear.
- The custom collectors shall not make the rebate to which this
article refers when the eastern or western port to which the
merchandise is destined is not expressed in the respective
consular invoices and manifests.
- Art. 2. The vessels receiving
transhipment in La Guayra, Puerto Cabello, or Carupano, of
produce, merchandise, and chattels to be carried to other
eastern or western ports of the republic, as the law of June 4
above mentioned permits, when they are national, shall not be
allowed to carry at the same time merchandise in the coasting
trade, for said vessels must be considered, in the port where
they land, as proceeding from a foreign port.
- Art. 3. The captains or supercargoes of
vessels receiving merchandise for transhipment in the ports of
La Guayra, Puerto Cabello, or Carupano shall present at the
custom-house where they bring said merchandise the manifest,
invoices, and bills of lading corresponding to the merchandise
which will be delivered to them by the custom collector of the
port where the transhipment hastaken place, after said officer
has compared and examined the manifest with the certificates
that are required to be presented at the custom-house by the
officer who witnessed the transhipment of said
merchandise.
- Art. 4. The collectors of customs,
in whose port these transhipments take place, shall, in every
case, communicate to the ministry of finances and the
custom-house to which the merchandise is destined the name of
the vessel on board of which the merchandise has been forwarded
from foreign ports, the name of the vessel in which the
merchandise is carried to the port of its destination, the
number of packages which constitute the cargo transhipped, and
the forwarding of the documents referring to it.
- Art. 5. The failure to present any
of the documents with which the foreign merchandise imported
into the republic has to come accompanied, in accordance with
Law XVI of the fiscal code, shall impede the transhipment to
which the preceding
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articles refer, and the custom-collector of the port where this
failure shall have occured shall detain the merchandise until
this defect shall he repaired, in accordance with the same law
regulating custom-houses, after which he shall examine and clear
the same, as if it had been destined to said port.
- Art. 6. The merchandise imported
from the Antilles or transhipped in the same, destined for
transit to Colombia, and which has to be examined in Maracaibo
or in Ciudad Bolivar, shall be taxed also with the 30 per cent,
additional, established by the law of June 4, 1881, in provision
of the conditions expressed in the law of transit that
merchandise shall pay in Venezuela, on its entry, the duties
that it may bear or be subject to.
- Art. 7. The minister of finance
shall determine the measures that he may think necessary for the
better execution of the present decree, of whose administration
he will take charge.
Given, signed with my hand, and
countersigned by the minister of finance in the federal palace at
Caracas, April 12, 19, and 24,
1882.
GUZMAN BLANCO.
Countersigned: the minister of finances: