New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-12-15
THE BRITISH WEST INDIES
COLD FACTS ABOUT RECIPROCITY.
TRICKY TARIFFS BY WHICH FOOD PRODUCTS
FROM THE UNITED STATES ARE DIscRIM-
MATED AGAINsT IN FAVOR OF Eng
LISH MANUFACTURES. i
RON STAFF CORRESPONDENT THE TRIBUNE.
STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE.

St Johns, Antigua, December 4.
Reciprocity now comes to the British islands
with few of the advantages that accompanied it,
former tender but with a penalty attached 70
their rejection of il that excics deep apprehension
What the American Government once asked them
to do with promise of larger trade and vastly
incfeased profits it now in effect commands them
TO do without compensation and under the
penalty Of losing their only possible market. Thac
the conditions under which this command is made
render compliance necessary is easily demonstrated
by the figures showing the present state OF the
islands trade. Taking them as whole their
annual exports amount to $32,200,000; their
imports to $3l 500, ,00O OF their exports Americs
in 1889 received Sl9,200,o00, Great Britain
$13,200,000 In other words, we gave market
to 50 per cent Of their total imports, while Eng
land gave a market to only 32 per cent. But
their tariffs are now so devised, and by Imperial
direction, to limit American exports to only
$1o,20O,O0O, while they enable Great Britain to
export $40, 100000 To express the entire busi-
ness in percentages we receive SO per cent OF
all they sell and supply only 3a per cent Of all
they buy, while Great Britain receives only 40
per cent of their production and sells 65 per
cent of their consumption.
This result is secured, not in The operation Of
that freedom of trade of which England makes
such noisy boasts, but by system of tricky
tariffs. In the very first conversation i had on
this subject here my companion being an Eng
lish estate owner and merchant selling oil his
sugar in the United States and buying two-thirds
of his store supplies from England, he remarked:
"Our tariff is not dfferential, as your Government
seems to suppose. 1t is very low tariff, adopted
solely for revenue purposes 1t applies to tho
goods of all countries alike. The tariff charged
here on products from the States is charged on
similar products from the mother country You
have heard this sort of talk from Mr.. Neville
Lubbock the British Commissioner now occupied
at Washington in the consideration Of this matter
with Mr.. Foster. 1t is true, but thoroughly mis-
leading. The answer to it is that there are no
similar products that the West Indies draw,
almost necessarily, their food supplies wheat, flour,
corn and meat products, from the United States,
and their cotton goods, hardware, machinery and
general stores from England; and that they have
imposed restrictive duties on American imports
and low duties on English. That is just as un-
fair as if the tariff were high on specific article
coming from America and low on the same article
coming from England. American trade is i'm
peded and English trade is facilitated. That In
the essential trouble and that is what has got
to be remedied.
Let the tariffs of the Lecward Islands illustrate
this point. As I have explained the tariff sched-
ules of each of the islands, whether confederated
or not are in some respects different from all
the others, but without exception they are drawn
on an identical plan and for common purpose,
and that plan and purpose are to maintain tho
islands by taxing American trade, and to render
English trade as free as possible. The Leeward
Islands furnish, therefore, fair example Of them
all Some worse, but none are better. have
made out from the blue book of 1890 a table
showing the value in English pounds of the prin-
cipal imports for that calendar year into the
Eeeward group. the country from which each
was principally drawn, and the ad val9rcm rate
of duty charged each article:
PRINCIPAL IMPORTS OF THE LEEWARD ISLANDS
DURING THE YEAR 1890.