APPENDIX. COMPARISON OF AMERICAN AND FOREIGN IMPORT DUTIES ON COTTON YARN. An examination of the tariff provisions of the principal foreign countries on cotton yarn-and cotton thread, which is usually provided for along with yarn-in comparison with those of the United States, is of value from two viewpoints. Cotton yarn being at once a manufactured commodity and the material for further manufacture, the general height of the duties imposed upon its importation constitutes a significant indication of the general industrial policy or attitude of a country, being a measure both of the tendency to protect the domestic producers of similar products, and of the tendency to favor the industries which consume the imported products, by taxing lightly or not at all the materials they require in manufacturing. These two tendencies or policies would be found inconsistent only in so far as the yarns which the importing industries require are of a character obtainable within the country. In the case of the United States, it has been seen that the area of possible competition with domestic products is limited to a comparatively small part of the imported yarns. THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS IN A COTTON YARN TARIFF SCHEDULE. In view of the wide range of fineness in which cotton yarn is produced, and the variety of processes or conditions in which it may be imported-and considering the varying degree of advantage or disadvantage which a particular country may have for producing the various kinds of yarns-the specific provisions or adjustments of duties in the tariff systems of the different countries are of suggestive value in any reconsideration of the American tariff schedule on cotton yarn. In the drawing up of a comprehensive schedule on cotton yarn, the features of particular importance are: (a) The method of assessment, whether specific or ad valorem (so many cents per pound, or such a percentage of the value of the goods), and if ad valorem, how the dutiable value is to be arrived at; 1 For except where a country is regularly an importer of large quantities of cotton yarn, as in China, or imposes very high duties, as did Russia, the duty on cotton yarn is hardly to be regarded as primarily a source of considerable federal revenue. (b) The general height of the basic scale of duties, and the relative treatment of coarse and fine yarns; (c) If the basic duties are graduated according to the fineness of the yarn, the divisional steps of the various groups, and the manner of adjusting the range or progression of duties; (d) The processes or conditions which it is considered desirable to tax or protect by a differential or additional duty above that for unbleached singles, which is the crude state of the yarn as spun and is the usual basic classification in tariff schedules; and (e) The treatment of cotton thread and yarn put up for retail sale, if these are provided for apart from yarn for manufacturing. THE TARIFF SYSTEMS OF 25 COUNTRIES COMPARED. The accompanying tabulation presents an analysis of the cotton yarn tariffs of the principal manufacturing or importing countries, grouped by continents. It is based upon a study of the last prewar tariffs of the various countries, and while an effort has been made to take account of all revisions and changes up to January 1, 1919, in the present unsettled state of international commercial relations, complicated by the import licensing systems or absolute prohibitions adopted by certain countries, the regulations now actually operative would in some cases be most difficult to ascertain. Representing as these do, however, substantially the tariffs that were in operation at the outbreak of the war, they serve our present purpose of indicating the specific provisions adopted by the various countries to regulate the importation of cotton yarn under normal conditions. As suggested in the discussion of the conditions determining the principal currents in international trade, variations in manner of treatment or regulation of imports of cotton yarn may in certain cases be less an indication of a definite policy on the part of a country than a reflection of the stage of advancement of the domestic. spinning industry or the particular import requirements of the yarn consumers within the country. Thus, Argentina or Roumania, where cotton spinning as a modern industry is comparatively in the early stage of development, can hardly regard imported yarns as possible competitors of domestic products, but rather as the raw material required by the local weaving or knitting plants, and in the case of the latter country, also by the hand-loom weaving industry, still carried on extensively in the homes of the people. Low duties on yarn imports, or none at all, would be the expected tariff policy under such conditions. On the other hand, the fact that countries like Spain or Brazil figure almost not at all as importers of cotton yarn, may well be the direct result of very high import duties imposed for a long period of years, the consequent exclusion of imports, |