No. 329.
Mr. Carter to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

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.

[Page 533]

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.,

GEO. W. CARTER.
[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 [Page 534] 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.


GUZMAN BLANCO.

Countersigned: the minister of finances:

A. Caballero.