No discrimination direct or indirect. two States under the flag of the other, whatever may be their origin and from what country soever the importation thereof may an duties on imports, have been made, shall not pay other or higher entrance duties, nor shall be subjected to other charges or restrictions, than they would pay or be subjected to were they imported under the national flag. Export duties. ARTICLE VII. Articles of every description exported by Belgian vessels, or by those of the United States of America, from the ports of either country to any country whatsoever, shall be subjected to no other duties or formalities than such as are required for exportation under the flag of the country where the shipment is made. No discrimination backs, &c. ARTICLE VIII. All premiums, drawbacks, or other favors of like nature, which may be allowed in the States of either of the contracting parties in premiums, draw upon goods imported or exported in national vessels, shall be likewise and in the same manner allowed upon goods imported directly from one of the two countries by its vessels into the other, or exported from one of the two countries by the vessels of the other to any destination whatsoever. Salt and fisheries. ARTICLE IX. The preceding article is, however, not to apply to the importation of salt, and of the produce of the national fisheries, each of the two parties reserving to itself the faculty of granting special privileges for the importation of those articles under its own flag. What is to be re nationality. ARTICLE X. The high contracting parties agree to consider and to treat as Belgian vessels, and as vessels of the United States, all those which, garded as proof of being provided by the competent authority with a passport, sea-letter, or any other suflicient document, shall be recog nized, conformably with existing laws, as national vessels in the country to which they respectively belong. No duties on por tions of cargoes re maining on board. ARTICLE XI. Belgian vessels and those of the United States may, conformably with the laws of the two countries, retain on board, in the ports of both, such parts of their cargoes as may be destined for a foreign country; and such parts shall not be subjected, either while they remain on board or upon reëxportation, to any charges whatsoever other than those for the prevention of smuggling. in No discrimination ARTICLE XII. During the period allowed by the laws of the two countries respectively for the warehousing of goods, no duties, other than those of warehouse Watch and storage, shall be levied upon articles brought from charges, &c either country into the other while awaiting transit, reëx portation, or entry for consumption. Such goods shall in no case be subject to higher warehouse charges or to other formalities than if they had been imported under the flag of the country. ARTICLE XIII. In all that relates to duties of customs and navigation, the two high contracting parties promise, reciprocally, not to grant any Most favored nafavor, privilege, or immunity to any other State which shall tion. not instantly become common to the citizens and subjects of both parties, respectively; gratuitously, if the concession or favor to such other State is gratuitous, and on allowing the same compensation, or its equivalent, if the concession is conditional. Neither of the contracting parties shall lay upon goods proceeding from the soil or the industry of the other party, which may be imported into its ports, any other or higher duties of importation or reëxportation than are laid upon the importation or reëxportation of similar goods coming from any other foreign country. ARTICLE XIV. Shipwrecks. In cases of shipwreck, damages at sea, or forced putting-in, each party shall afford to the vessels of the other, whether belonging to the State or to individuals, the same assistance and protection, and the same immunities, which would have been granted to its own vessels in similar cases. ARTICLE XV. It is, moreover, agreed between the two contracting parties that the Consuls and Vice-Consuls of the United States in the ports Consuls and Vice Deserters. of Belgium, and, reciprocally, the Consuls and Vice-Consuls Consuls. of Belgium in the ports of the United States, shall continue to enjoy all the privileges, protection, and assistance usually granted to them, and which may be necessary for the proper discharge of their functions. The said Consuls and Vice-Consuls may cause to be arrested and sent back, either to their vessels or to their country, such seamen as may have deserted from the vessels of their nation. To this end they shall apply in writing to the competent local authorities, and they shall prove, by exhibition of the vessel's crew-list or other document, or, if she shall have departed, by copy of said documents, duly certified by them, that the seamen whom they claim formed part of the said crew. Upon such demand, thus supported, the delivery of the deserters shall not be refused. They shall, moreover, receive all aid and assistance in searching for, seizing, and arresting such deserters, who shall, upon the requisition and at the expense of the Consul or Vice-Consul, be confined and kept in the prisons of the country until he shall have found an opportunity for sending them home. If, however, such an opportunity should not occur within three months after the arrest, the deserters shall be set at liberty, and shall not again be arrested for the same cause. is, however, understood that seamen of the country in which the desertion shall occur are excepted from these provisions, unless they be naturalized citizens or subjects of the other country. ARTICLE XVI. It Transit duty. Articles of all kinds, the transit of which is allowed in Belgium, coming from or going to the United States, shall be exempt from all transit duty in Belgium, when the transportation through the Belgian territory is effected on the railroads of the State. ARTICLE XVII. Duration of treaty. The present treaty shall be in force during ten years from the date of the exchange of the ratifications, and until the expiration of twelve months after either of the high contracting parties shall have announced to the other its intention to terminate the operation thereof, each party reserving to itself the right of making such declaration to the other at the end of the ten years above mentioned; and it is agreed that, after the expiration of the twelve months of prolongation accorded on both sides, this treaty and all its stipulations shall cease to be in force. ARTICLE XVIII. This treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington, within the term of nine months after its Ratifications, date, or sooner if possible. In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present treaty, in duplicate, and have affixed thereto their seals, at Washington, the seventeenth of July, eighteen hundred and fifty-eight. [L. S.] LEW. CASS. [L. S.] H. BOSCH SPENCER. BELGIUM, 1863.* CONVENTION BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF THE BELGIANS, CONCLUDED AT BRUSSELS MAY 20, 1863; RATIFICATIONS EXCHANGED JUNE 24, 1864; PROCLAIMED NOVEMBER 18, 1864. Contracting par tie. The President of the United States of America on the one side, His Majesty the King of the Belgians on the other side, having deemed it advantageous to complete, by new stipulations the treaty of commerce and navigation entered into by the United States and Belgium on the 17th day of July, 1858, have resolved to make a convention in addition to that arrangement, and have appointed for their Plenipotentiaries, namely: The President of the United States, Henry Shelton Sanford, a citizen of the United States, their Minister Resident near His Negotiators. Majesty the King of the Belgians; His Majesty the King of the Belgians, the Sieur Charles Rogier, Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold, decorated with the Iron Cross, Grand Cross of the Order of the Ernestine Branch of Saxony, of the Polar Star of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus, of Our Lady of the Conception of Villa-Vicosa, of the Legion of Honor, of the White Eagle, &c., a member of the Chamber of Representatives, his Minister of Foreign Affairs; Who, after having communicated to each other their full powers, found to be in good and proper form, have agreed upon the following articles: Tonnage and port ARTICLE I. From and after the day when the capitalization of the dnes, pilotage fees, duties levied upon navigation in the Scheldt shall have been secured by a general arrangemnte— &.. 1st. The tonnage dues levied in Belgian ports shall cease. *Vol. XIII, Statutes at Large, p. 647 et seq. 2d. Fees for pilotage in Belgian ports and in the Scheldt, in so far as it depends on Belgium, shall be reduced twenty per centum for sailing vessels, twenty-five per centum for vessels in tow, thirty per centum for steam vessels. 3d. Port dues and other charges levied by the city of Antwerp shall be throughout reduced. ARTICLE II. In derogation to the ninth article of the treaty of the 17th of July, 1858, the flag of the United States shall be assimilated to that of Belgium for the transportation of salt. ARTICLE III. Salt. * Import dut es, The tariff of import duties resulting from the treaty of the 1st of May, 1861, between Belgium and France, is extended to goods imported from the United States, on the same conditions with which it was extended to Great Britain by the treaty of the twentythird of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-two. The reduction made by the treaties entered into by Belgium with Switzerland on the eleventh of December, eighteen hundred and sixtytwo, with Italy on the ninth of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, with the Netherlands on the twelfth of May, eighteen hundred and sixtythree, and also with France on the twelfth of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall be equally applied to goods imported from the United States. It is agreed that Belgium shall also extend to the United States the reductions of import duties which may result from her subsequent treaties with other powers. ARTICLE IV. The United States, in view of the proposition made by Belgium to regulate, by a common accord, the capitalization of the Scheldt dues, consents to contribute to this capitalization under the following conditions: Scheldt dues, a. The capital sum shall not exceed thirty-six millions of franes. b. Belgium shall assume for its part one-third of that amount. e. The remainder shall be apportioned among the other States, pro rata to their navigation in the Scheldt. d. The proportion of the United States, to be determined in accordance with this rule, shall not exceed the sum of two millions seven hundred and seventy-nine thousand two hundred franes. e. The payment of the said proportion shall be made in ten annual installments of equal amount, which shall include the capital and the interest on the portion remaining unpaid at the rate of four per centum. The first installment shall be payable at Brussels, on the first day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, or immediately after the Congress of the United States shall have made the requisite appropriation. In either event, the interest shall commence to run on the date of the first of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, above mentioned. The Government of the United States reserves the right of anticipating the payment of the proportion of the United States. * See Vol. XII, p. 1046, Statutes at Large. The above-mentioned conditions for the capitalization of the Scheldt dues shall be inserted in a general treaty, to be adopted by a conference of the maritime States interested, and in which the Uniteds States shall be represented. convention. ARTICLE V. The Articles I and IV of the present additional convention shall be Duration of this perpetual; and the remaining articles shall, together with the treaty of commerce and navigation made between the high contracting parties on the seventeenth of July, eighteen hundred and fifty-eight, have the same force and duration as the treaties mentioned in Article III. Ratifications. The ratifications thereof shall be exchanged with the least possible delay. In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present convention, and have affixed thereto their seals. Made in duplicate, and signed at Brussels the twentieth day of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-three. [L. S.] L. S.] H. S. SANFORD. Declaration annexed to the additional convention signed this day between the United States and Belgium: The Plenipotentiary of the United States having required that the attributions of the Consuls of the United States in Belgium should become the object of farther stipulations, and it having been impracticable to complete in season the examination of the said stipulations, it is agreed that the Belgian Government will continue that examination with the sincere intent to come to an agreement as early as may be possible. Done at Brussels, in duplicate, the twentieth of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-three. H. S. SANFORD. BELGIUM 1863.* TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF THE BELGIANS-EXTINGUISHMENT OF THE SCHELDT DUES-CONCLUDED AT BRUSSELS JULY 20, 1863; RATIFICATIONS EXCHANGED, JUNE 24, 1864; PROCLAIMED NOVEMBER 18, 1864. Contracting par ties. The United States of America and His Majesty the King of the Belgians, equally desirous of liberating forever the navigation. of the Schledt from the dues which encumber it, to assure the reformation of the maritime taxes levied in Belgium, and to facilitate thereby the development of trade and navigation, have resolved to conclude a treaty to complete the convention signed on the 20th of May, 1863, between the United States and Belgium, and have appointed as their Plenipotentiaries, namely: The President of the United States of America, Henry Shelton Sanford, a citizen of the United States, their Minister Resident to His Majesty the King of the Belgians; and His Majesty Plenipotentiaries. * Vol. XIII, Statutes at Large, pp. 655 et seq. |