Proclamation 850—Reciprocity with Spain

Whereas, the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Spain have, by an exchange of notes at Washington on February 20, 1909, agreed to supplement the Commercial Agreement which they concluded at San Sebastion on August 1, 1906, to the end that sparkling wines produced in and exported from Spain may be admitted on their importation into the United States at the reduced rates authorized by Section 3 of the United States Tariff Act of July 24, 1897, which action, in the judgment of the President, is compensated by reciprocal and equivalent concessions on the part of Spain in favor of the products of the soil or industry of the United States;

Now, Therefore, be it known that I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, acting under the authority conferred by the third section of said Tariff Act, do hereby suspend, during the continuance in force of the said Commercial Agreement of August 1, 1906, the imposition and collection of the duties imposed by the first section of said Act upon the articles hereinafter specified, being the products of the soil or industry of Spain; and do declare in place thereof the following rates of duty provided in the third section of said Act to be in force and effect from and after the date of this, my proclamation, as follows:

On all sparkling wines, in bottles containing not more than one quart and more than one pint, six dollars per dozen; containing not more than one pint each and more than one-half pint, three dollars per dozen; containing one-half pint each or less, one dollar and fifty cents per dozen; in bottles or other vessels containing more than one quart each, in addition to six dollars per dozen bottles on the quantities in excess of one quart, at the rate of one dollar and ninety cents per gallon.

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 twentieth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and thirty-third.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

By the President:

ROBERT BACON, Secretary of State.