Proclamation 309—Modifications of the Tariff Laws of the Dominican Republic

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 the Dominican Republic 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 the Dominican Republic at Washington has communicated to the special plenipotentiary of the United States 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 the Dominican Republic will by due legal enactment admit, from and after September 1, 1891, into all the established ports of entry of the Dominican Republic the articles or merchandise named in the following schedules, 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.

Articles to be admitted free of duty into the Dominican Republic:

1. Animals, live.

2. Meats of all kinds, salted or in brine, but not smoked.

3. Corn or maize, corn meal, and starch.

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

5. Hay, bran, and straw for forage.

6. Trees, plants, vines, and seeds, and grains of all kinds for propagation.

7. Cotton-seed oil and meal cake of same.

8. Tallow, in cake or melted, and oil for machinery, subject to examination and proof respecting the use of said oil.

9. Resin, tar, pitch, and turpentine.

10. Manures, natural and artificial.

11. Coal, mineral.

12. Mineral waters, natural and artificial.

13. Ice.

14. Machines, including steam engines and those of all other kinds, and parts of the same, implements and tools for agricultural, mining, manufacturing, industrial, and scientific purposes, including carts, wagons, handcarts, and wheelbarrows, and parts of the same.

15. Material for the construction and equipment of railways.

16. Iron, cast and wrought, and steel, in pigs, bars, rods, plates, beams, rafters, and other similar articles for the construction of buildings, and in wire, nails, screws, and pipes.

17. Zinc, galvanized and corrugated iron, tin and lead in sheets, asbestus, tar paper, tiles, slate, and other material for roofing.

18. Copper in bars, plates, nails, and screws.

19. Copper and lead pipe.

20. Bricks, fire bricks, cement, lime, artificial stone, paving tiles, marble and other stones in rough, dressed or polished, and other earthy materials used in building.

21. Windmills.

22. Wire, plain or barbed, for fences, with hooks, staples, nails, and similar articles used in the construction of fences.

23. Telegraph wire and telegraphic, telephonic, and electrical apparatus of all kinds for communication and illumination.

24. Wood and lumber of all kinds for building, in logs or pieces, beams, rafters, planks, boards, shingles, flooring, joists, wooden houses, mounted or unmounted, and accessory parts of buildings.

25. Cooperage of all kinds, including staves, headings, and hoops, barrels and boxes, mounted or unmounted.

26. Materials for shipbuilding.

27. Boats and lighters

28. School furniture, blackboards, and other articles exclusively for the use of schools.

29. Books, bound or unbound, pamphlets, newspapers and printed matter, and paper for printing newspapers.

30. Printers inks of all colors, type, leads, and all accessories for printing.

31. Sacks, empty, for packing sugar.

32. Gold and silver coin and bullion.

SCHEDULE B.

Articles to be admitted into the Dominican Republic at a reduction of duty of 25 per cent:

33. Meats not included in Schedule A and meat products of all kinds except lard.

34. Butter, cheese, and condensed or canned milk.

35. Fish and shellfish, salted, dried, smoked, pickled, or preserved in cans.

36. Fruits and vegetables, fresh, canned, dried, pickled, or preserved.

37. Manufactures of iron and steel, single or mixed, not included in Schedule A.

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

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

40. Paper for writing, in envelopes, ruled or blank books, wall paper, paper for wrapping and packing, for cigarettes, in cardboard, boxes, and bags, sandpaper and pasteboard.

41. Tin plate and tinware for arts, industries, and domestic uses.

42. Cordage, rope, and twine of all kinds.

43. Manufactures of wood of all kinds not embraced in Schedule A, including wooden ware, implements for household use, and furniture in whole or in part of wood.

And that the Government of the Dominican Republic 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 special plenipotentiary of the United States has, by my direction, given assurance to the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the Dominican Republic at Washington that this action of the Government of the Dominican Republic in granting exemption of duties to the products and manufactures of the United States of America. on their importation into the Dominican Republic is accepted 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 the Dominican Republic 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 1st day of August, 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.