Proclamation 308—Modifications of the Tariff Laws of Cuba and Puerto Rico

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Whereas, pursuant to section 3 of the act of Congress approved October 1, 1890, entitled "An act to reduce the revenue and equalize duties on imports, and for other purposes," the Secretary of State of the United States of America communicated to the Government of Spain the action of the Congress of the United States of America, with a view to secure reciprocal trade, in declaring the articles enumerated in said section 3, to wit, sugars, molasses, coffee, and hides, to be exempt from duty upon their importation into the United States of America; and

Whereas the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Spain at Washington has communicated to the Secretary of State the fact that, in reciprocity and compensation for the admission into the United States of America free of all duty of the articles enumerated in section 3 of said act, the Government of Spain will by due legal enactment and as a provisional measure admit, from and after September 1, 1891, into all the established ports of entry of the Spanish islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico the articles or merchandise named in the following transitory schedule, on the terms stated therein, provided that the same be the product or manufacture of the United States and proceed directly from the ports of said States:

TRANSITORY SCHEDULE.

Products or manufactures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba and Puerto Rico free of duties:

1. Meats, in brine, salted or smoked, bacon, hams, and meats preserved in cans, in lard or by extraction of air, jerked beef excepted.

2. Lard.

3. Tallow and other animal greases, melted or crude, unmanufactured.

4. Fish and shellfish, live, fresh, dried, in brine, smoked, pickled, oysters and salmon in cans.

5. Oats, barley, rye, and buckwheat and flour of these cereals.

6. Starch, maizena, and other alimentary products of corn, except corn meal.

7. Cotton seed, oil and meal cake of said seed for cattle.

8. Hay, straw for forage, and bran.

9. Fruits, fresh, dried, and preserved, except raisins.

10. Vegetables and garden products, fresh and dried.

11. Resin of pine, tar, pitch, and turpentine.

12. Woods of all kinds, in trunks or logs, joists, rafters, planks, beams, boards, round or cylindric masts, although cut, planed, and tongued and grooved, including flooring.

13. Woods for cooperage, including staves, headings, and wooden hoops.

14. Wooden boxes, mounted or unmounted, except of cedar.

15. Woods, ordinary, manufactured into doors, frames, windows, and shutters, without paint or varnish, and wooden houses, unmounted, without paint or varnish.

16. Wagons and carts for ordinary roads and agriculture.

17. Sewing machines.

18. Petroleum, raw or unrefined, according to the classification fixed in the existing orders for the importation of this article in said islands.

19. Coal, mineral.

20. Ice.

Products or manufactures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba and Puerto Rico on payment of the duties stated:

21. Corn or maize, 25 cents per 100 kilograms.

22. Corn meal, 25 cents per 100 kilograms.

23. Wheat, from January 1, 1892, 30 cents per 100 kilograms.

24. Wheat flour, from January 1, 1892, $1 per 100 kilograms.

Products or manufactures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba and Puerto Rico at a reduction of duty of 25 per cent:

25. Butter and cheese.

26. Petroleum, refined.

27. Boots and shoes in whole or in part of leather or skins.

And whereas the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Spain in Washington has further communicated to the Secretary of State that the Government of Spain will in like manner and as a definitive arrangement admit, from and after July 1, 1892, into all the established ports of entry of the Spanish islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico the articles or merchandise named in the following schedules A, B, C, and D, on the terms stated therein, provided that the same be the product or manufacture of the United States and proceed directly from the ports of said States:

SCHEDULE A.

Products or manufactures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba and Puerto Rico free of duties:

1. Marble, jasper, and alabaster, natural or artificial, in rough or in pieces, dressed, squared, and prepared for taking shape.

2. Other stones and earthy matters, including cement, employed in building, the arts and industries.

3. Waters, mineral or medicinal.

4. Ice.

5. Coal, mineral.

6. Resin, tar, pitch, turpentine, asphalt, schist, and bitumen.

7. Petroleum, raw or crude, in accordance with the classification fixed in the tariff of said islands.

8. Clay, ordinary, in paving tiles, large and small, bricks, and roof tiles unglazed, for the construction of buildings, ovens, and other similar purposes.

9. Gold and silver coin.

10. Iron, cast, in pigs, and old iron and steel.

11. Iron, east, in pipes, beams, rafters, and similar articles for the construction of buildings and in ordinary manufactures. (See repertory.)

12. Iron, wrought, and steel, in bars, rails and bars of all kinds, plates, beams, rafters, and other similar articles for construction of buildings.

13. Iron, wrought, and steel, in wire, nails, screws, nuts, and pipes.

14. Iron, wrought, and steel, in ordinary manufactures, and wire cloth unmanufactured. (See repertory.)

15. Cotton, raw, with or without seed.

16. Cotton seed, oil and meal cake of same for cattle.

17. Tallow and all other animal greases, melted or crude, unmanufactured.

18. Books and pamphlets, printed, bound and unbound.

19. Woods of all kinds, in trunks or logs, joists, rafters, planks, beams, boards, and round or cylindric masts, although cut, planed, tongued and grooved, including flooring.

20. Wooden cooperage, including staves, headings, and wooden hoops.

21. Wooden boxes, mounted or unmounted, except of cedar.

22. Woods, ordinary, manufactured into doors, frames, windows, and shutters, without paint or varnish, and wooden houses, unmounted, without paint or varnish.

23. Woods, ordinary, manufactured into all kinds of articles, turned or unturned, painted or varnished, except furniture. (See repertory.)

24. Manures, natural or artificial.

25. Implements, utensils, and tools for agriculture, the arts, and mechanical trades.

26. Machines and apparatus, agricultural, motive, industrial, and scientific, of all classes and materials, and loose pieces for the same, including wagons, carts, and handcarts for ordinary roads and agriculture.

27. Material and articles for public works, such as railroads, tramways, roads, canals for irrigation and navigation, use of waters, ports, light-houses, and civil construction of general utility, when introduced by authorization of the Government or if free admission is obtained in accordance with local laws.

28. Materials of all classes for the construction, repair in whole or in part of vessels, subject to specific regulations to avoid abuse in the importation.

29. Meats, in brine, salted and smoked, including bacon, hams, and meats preserved in cans, in lard or by extraction of air, jerked beef excepted.

30. Lard and butter.

31. Cheese.

32. Fish and shellfish, live, fresh, dried, in brine, salted, smoked, and pickled, oysters and salmon in cans.

33. Oats, barley, rye, and buckwheat, and flour of these cereals.

34. Starch, maizena, and other alimentary products of corn, except corn meal.

35. Fruits, fresh, dried, and preserved, except raisins.

36. Vegetables and garden products, fresh and dried.

37. Hay, straw for forage, and bran.

38. Trees, plants, shrubs, and garden seeds.

39. Tan bark.

SCHEDULE B.

Products or manufactures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba and Puerto Rico on payment of the duties stated:

40. Corn or maize, 25 cents per 100 kilograms.

41. Corn meal, 25 cents per 100 kilograms.

42. Wheat, 30 cents per 100 kilograms.

43. Wheat flour, $1 per 100 kilograms.

44. Carriages, cars and other vehicles for railroads or tramways, where authorization of the Government for free admission has not been obtained, 1 per cent ad valorem.

SCHEDULE C.

Products or manufactures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba and Puerto Rico at a reduction of duty of 50 per cent:

45. Marble, jasper, and alabaster of all kinds, cut into flags, slabs, or steps, and the same worked or carved in all kinds of articles, polished or not.

46. Glass and crystal ware, plate and window glass, and the same silvered, quick-silvered, and platinized.

47. Clay in tiles, large and small, and mosaic for pavement, colored tiles, roof tiles glazed, and pipes.

48. Stoneware and fine earthenware, and porcelain.

49. Iron, cast, in fine manufactures or those polished, with coating of porcelain or part of other metals. (See repertory.)

50. Iron, wrought, and steel, in axles, tires, springs, and wheels for carriages, rivets and their washers.

51. Iron, wrought, and steel, in fine manufactures or those polished, with coating of porcelain or part of other metals, not expressly comprised in other numbers of these schedules, and platform scales for weighing. (See repertory.)

52. Needles, pens, knives (table and carving), razors, penknives, scissors, pieces for watches, and other similar articles of iron and steel.

53. Tin plate in sheets or manufactured.

54. Copper, bronze, brass, and nickel, and alloys of same with common metals, in lump or bars, and all manufactures of the same.

55. All other common metals and alloys of the same, in lump or bars, and all manufactures of the same, plain, varnished, gilt, silvered, or nickeled.

56. Furniture of all kinds, of wood or metal, including school furniture, blackboards, and other materials for schools, and all kinds of articles of fine woods not expressly comprised in other numbers of these schedules. (See repertory.)

57. Rushes, esparto, vegetable hair, broom corn, willow, straw, palm, and other similar materials, manufactured into articles of all kinds.

58. Pastes for soups, rice flour, bread and crackers, and alimentary farinas not comprised in other numbers of these schedules.

59. Preserved alimentary substances and canned goods not comprised in other numbers of these schedules, including sausages, stuffed meats, mustards, sauces, pickles, jams, and jellies.

60. Rubber and gutta-percha and manufactures thereof, alone or mixed with other substances (except silk), and oilcloths and tarpaulin.

61. Rice, hulled or unhulled.

SCHEDULE D.

Products or manufactures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba and Puerto Rico at a reduction of duty of 25 per cent:

62. Petroleum, refined, and benzine.

63. Cotton, manufactured, spun or twisted, and in goods of all kinds, woven or knit, and the same mixed with other vegetable or animal fibers in which cotton is an equal or greater component part, and clothing exclusively of cotton.

64. Rope, cordage, and twine of all kinds.

65. Colors, crude and prepared, with or without oil, inks of all kinds, shoe blacking, and varnishes.

66. Soap, toilet, and perfumery.

67. Medicines, proprietary or patent and all others, and drugs.

68. Stearine and tallow manufactured in candles.

69. Paper for printing, for decorating rooms, of wood or straw, for wrapping and packing, and bags and boxes of same, sandpaper and pasteboard.

70. Leather and skins, tanned, dressed, varnished, or japanned, of all kinds, in, eluding sole leather or belting.

71. Boots and shoes in whole or in part of leather or skins.

72. Trunks, valises, traveling bags, portfolios, and other similar articles in whole or in part of leather.

73. Harness and saddlery of all kinds.

74. Watches and clocks of gold, silver, or other metals, with cases of stone, wood, or other material, plain or ornamented.

75. Carriages of two or four wheels and pieces of the same.

It is understood that flour which on its exportation from the United States has been favored with drawbacks shall not share in the foregoing reduction of duty.

The provisional arrangement as set forth in the transitory schedule shall come to an end on July 1, 1892, and on that date be substituted by the definitive arrangement as set forth in schedules A, B, C, and D.

And that the Government of Spain has further provided that the laws and regulations adopted to protect its revenue and prevent fraud in the declarations and proof that the articles named in the foregoing schedules are the product or manufacture of the United States of America shall place no undue restrictions on the importer nor impose any additional charges or fees therefor on the articles imported; and

Whereas the Secretary of State has, by my direction, given assurance to the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Spain at Washington that this action of the Government of Spain in granting exemption of duties to the products and manufactures of the United States of America on their importation into Cuba and Puerto Rico is accepted for those islands as a due reciprocity for the action of Congress as set forth in section 3 of said act:

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, have caused the above-stated modifications of the tariff laws of Cuba and Puerto Rico to be made public for the information of the citizens of the United States of America.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 31st day of July, 1891, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixteenth.

BENJ. HARRISON

By the President:

WILLIAM F. WHARTON, Acting Secretary of State .