THE NEW GERMAN TARIFF. The tariff act which, after the longest and most momentous struggle in German legislative annals, passed the Reichstag during an all-night session on December 13-14 was immediately thereafter confirmed by the Bundesrath and became a law of the Empire. The imperial decree followed, announcing its enactment, defining the classes of articles that are to be duty free, and declaring that the date at which the new tariff law would become operative would be announced hereafter. When this will be will depend mainly upon the time that will be necessarily occupied in negotiating new commercial treaties with the several nations with which Germany has had such treaties during the past ten years, which conventions must now be revised and agreed to on the wholly novel basis which will be established by the new tariff. How long this will require is as yet a matter of conjecture, but it is generally thought that the treaty negotiations will occupy from twelve to eighteen months, which would bring the tariff law of December, 1902, into force somewhere between January and July, 1904. The law as finally enacted was, with a few more or less important changes, practically identical with the bill originally proposed by the Imperial Government and first officially published on July 26, 1901. Its provisions, as they would affect the principal articles of import from the United States, were fully described in a report of this series dated July 27, 1901, and published as ADVANCE SHEETS NO. 1120, of August 22, in that year.* It remains, therefore, to note the changes which were made in the original act during the seventeen months while it was under discussion, and to observe how the law as a whole is likely-unless its effects shall be modified meanwhile by a treaty of reciprocity between the two countries-to affect the future import trade of Germany from the United States. The most important schedules, so far as our country will be concerned, are those which relate to agricultural products, viz, cereals, meats, and domestic animals, and a glance at these sections reveals. the general scope and purpose of the enactment to protect the farmers and landowners of the Empire from foreign competition, and to make such foreign-grown food stuffs as are imported pay an increased revenue to the State. Especially significant in this connection are the schedules covering the duties on grains and cereal products. In the following synopsis are given under each head (1) the present autonomous rate *Also in CONSULAR REPORTS No. 253 (October, 1901). of duty; (2) the minimum rate to which these duties have been hitherto reduced by treaties with certain favored nations, including the United States; (3) the new duties proposed by the Government. bill of July 26, 1901; and (4) the rates, in marks and United States currency equivalents, as they were adopted in the completed act. The figures show in all cases, unless otherwise specified, the amount of duty per double centner-i. e., 100 kilograms, or 220.4 pounds avoirdupois. Other new rates that will affect, more or less, standard imports from the United States are the following: Electrical machinery, viz, dynamos, electric motors, converters, transformers, etc., for machines: Marks. Under 500 kilograms (1,102 pounds)......................................per 100 kilograms... 9.00 $2. 14 ..do...... Machine tools for working metals, wood, or stone, steam and hydraulic presses, welding machines, mechanical hammers: Marks. $4.76 ...do...... 12.00= 2.85 ...do...... 8.00= 1.90 I. 42 .97 250 kilograms (551 pounds) in weight.........per 100 kilograms... 20.00 ..do...... 6.00= ...do...... 4.00= Steam engines, turbines, gas and caloric engines, blowing machinery, pumps, portable cranes, pile drivers and power hammers, ice machinery, etc., range from a rate of $23.80 per 100 kilograms (220.4 pounds) for machines weighing less than 40 kilograms (88 pounds) each to $4.28 for machines between 1 and 2 tons in weight, and so on down to 83 cents per 100 kilograms for machinery weighing more than 100 tons each. 60.00 $14. 28 Telegraphic instruments, telephones, electrical lighting and power Marks. Freight cars, open and covered... Passenger cars: Not upholstered...... Upholstered 10.00= 2.38 20. 23 Leather shoes weighing more than 1,100 grams (21⁄2 pounds) per pair........ .....rate per 100 kilograms... 85.00 Shoes weighing less than 1,100 grams (21⁄2 pounds) per pair...do...... 120.00= 28.56 Shoes weighing less than 600 grams (14 pounds).................................................do.............. 180.00 42. 84 Under the new tariff raw cotton, flax fiber, and most other raw materials, including copper, lead, and aluminum, remain free of duty. Among the few reductions established by the revised schedules are sections 808 and 810, which cover, respectively, spades, shovels, hoes and plowshares, hay and manure forks, scythes, sickles, and straw cutters, which under the present tariff are dutiable at 10 marks ($2.38) per 100 kilograms (220.4 pounds). The Government bill of 1901 divided these articles into three groups and fixed the duty at 4.50 marks ($1.07) for spades and shovels, 10 marks ($2.38) for forks, and 15 marks ($3.57) for scythes and sickles, but the agrarian interests were strongly represented and in the schedule finally adopted spades, shovels, and plowshares are fixed at 4.50 marks ($1.07), hay and manure forks and other similar implements at 7.50 marks ($1.78), and scythes, sickles, and straw cutters at 12 marks ($2.85) per 100 kilograms. These sections are worthy of note in this connection as illustrations of the scrupulous care with which the new tariff act, from first to last, favors and supports the interests of the agricultural as against the industrial and mercantile classes. No 270-034 SOME OBVIOUS RESULTS OF THE NEW RATES. Assuming that the tariff of December, 1902, may be put in force before a new treaty of reciprocity may have been concluded between the United States and Germany, the duties on several leading articles of import from our country will be modified as follows: Wheat, which now under the treaty modifications pays 83 cents, will then pay $1.78 per 100 kilograms (220.4 pounds), or about 58.5 cents per bushel, which in some years would have been a fair average price for the grain itself in the American market. Paragraph 1 of the administrative decree which accompanies the tariff act stipulates that in no case shall the prescribed duties on cereals be reduced by any treaty of commerce or reciprocity below the following minimum. rates per 100 kilograms: Wheat...... Rye....... Oats Marks. 5.50 $1.30 5.00 1.19 4.00= .95 5.00 I. 19 Flour will carry a practically prohibitive duty of $4. 36 per double centner, equal to about $4.06 per barrel of 196 pounds. The milling facilities of the United States have now reached a point at which they are able to manufacture into flour all the wheat grown in our country. Naturally, under these conditions there is a vigorous search for foreign markets for American flour. It is not probable that any such market will be found in Germany. Both the existing tariff, the new one now under consideration, and any future schedule likely to be adopted are and will be so constructed as to enable the German miller, even when grinding imported wheat, to undersell flour from the same country in which the foreign wheat was grown. milling interest of this country includes a vast number of small mills, located in every part of the Empire, and owned by so large a number of persons that their interests are certain to be permanently and securely protected. The Another significant and effective section of the new tariff is the one No. 46-which relates to fresh apples, pears, and quinces. Hitherto, these fruits have been free of duty, and a large import trade has been built up during the past five or six years. During the eleven months ended November 30, 1902, 110,327 tons of fresh apples were imported into Germany, of which 12,091 tons came from the Netherlands, 37,284 tons from Austria-Hungary, 48,745 tons from Switzerland, and the remainder from France, Italy, Russia, and the United States, which last contributed 1,071 tons. It is proper to say, however, that December is the principal month for the import of American apples, and the figures for that month are not known or included in the above totals. Such a rapidly growing influx of foreign fruit inspired the framers of the new German tariff to provide that apples, pears, and quinces "unpacked" shall be admitted free from September 25 to November 25. Thenceforward, until September 25 of the next year, they will be dutiable at 2.50 marks (60 cents) per double centner. Meanwhile all packed applesthat is, contained in barrels, boxes, or otherwise than in bags or loose in bulk-must pay 10 marks, or $2. 38, per 100 kilograms (220.4) pounds). The effect of this ingenious provision will be that while apples in bags or loose in canal-boat loads will come in from neighboring countries free during the season of apple harvest, and at all other times under a nominal duty, the fruit coming oversea or long distances by rail will be assessed about $2 per barrel. The question of future German trade in American apples will depend, therefore, largely on whether the grades of fruit suitable for this market can or can not be brought oversea in sacks or loose, like bulk wheat, in the holds of vessels. The American apple is fully introduced and highly esteemed in this country, but it is doubtful whether it would stand on any large scale a duty of $2 per barrel. The duties on shoes range, as above explained, from $20.23 per 100 kilograms (220.4 pounds) for qualities weighing more than 2.2 pounds per pair to $42.84 for the same quantity of fine shoes weighing 600 grams (1.25 pounds), or less, per pair. The net effect of the new schedule will be, in the opinion of the experts, to raise the average duties on a retail stock of men's, women's, and children's shoes about 25 cents per pair. This increase, if shared by the American manufacturer and his German customers, ought not to interfere seriously with the large and steadily increasing import of American foot wear. THE QUESTION OF COMMERCIAL TREATIES. The general subject now enters upon its final and, in some respects, most complicated phase-that of the negotiation of a new set. of commercial treaties based on the revised tariff. During the final debate on the bill in the Reichstag, it was promised that the Government would undertake, before making new conventions, a thorough revision of all existing treaties which contain the most-favored-nation clause. As a reason for this, it was stated that the United States has introduced in practice a modified interpretation of that clause which renders it inadvisable for Germany to concede most-favorednation privileges to any countries except those with whom new and special arrangements will be made. A new Reichstag will be elected in June, and one of its earliest and most important duties will be the ratification of the new treaties. |