The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1897-09-09

washington, Sept. 6.-Senor M Cor-
ca Merou, the Argentine minister In a
noI YET received official notice of Inc mes,
96age sent to the Argentine congress i,v
rec;nrnn;t,. uriDuru, suggesting either
Sreclproclty treaties with the T;nitnd
G fItes, or retaliatory legislation, if The
,Enited States declines to make treaty
put he Is familiar with its purpose and
~ IN me me with negotiations he has conduct.
eu Iof some time with the state depart
f men,' lie is expecting information
I'M M nIs government at any day.
ne presentation in Argentine was
a n&e;a by Senior Merou in an
S S,ll note which he sent to Secretary
Sherman some time ago. In this tba
munster referred to the painful surprise
OF ms government ON hearing of the
practically prohibitory rate of duty
which Is made on Argentine wool. He
5iso presented statement on the con-
ultlon OF the trade between the coun-
tries, which he said showed that the
main articles sent by Argentine to the
United States are wool, hides. goat skins
and bristles. In 1896 the shipment of
WOOL to the United States was 2,736.-
'ool pounds, valued at $2,G3S,257 Az
gentine also furnished 21.9 per cent of
Aall the hides brought into the country.
omlng next to the United Kingdom
Il pei. cent of all goat skins and IL per
<Hent of all bristes. The new tariff law,
the minister said, fixed practically pro-
hlbitive rates on wool and hides The
wool schedule he represented to be pc
cullarly burdensome, as the Argentine
woods have more shrinkage than Aus
tralian woods. thus permitting the latter
to have an advantage. Minister MerOu
then pointed out that Argentine had
made tariff concessions to the United
States, specifying:
1--WE have on the free list besides
other articles, mowers reapers, thresh-
ers, raw petroleum, coal, coke, locomo-
tives, rails and paper; we have reduced
the duty on lumber yellow. on canned
goods. on petroleum, on cotton goods
(this last from 60 per cent to 90 per
cent, and we are levying moderate
duty on all the other American products
imported 90 per cent ad valorem Oh
plows, machines and motors of all kinds
for agricultural purposes, sewing ma
chimes, rosin, wire for fences, etc."
The value of mowers and 7eapers
Slipped from the United States to Ar
gentine, he said. was SSH ,445 for the
year ending July l, 1895, while the ship
ments of mineral oil, lumber, tools, all
kinds Of instruments, railroad equip
mems. etc, also were large.
This document he followed up with
more recent statement, in which he
showed by official statistics that for a
period of ten years-1SS7 to 1896, in
'clusive-the trade of the two countries
has almost balanced the shipments
from Argentine to the Unitel States,
being $57,903, 1888 and those from the
United States to Argentine. $57, 164 ,GO5.
!. President Uriburu's plan contem-
,oslates that the Argentine tariff rates
I,hall be remodeled so as to provide Il
maximum tariff and minimum tariff.
similar to the plan of European. coun-
tries. The advantages of the minimum
rates will then be accorded to the United
States if reciprocity treaty. is nego-
tiated, which will give concessions to Ar,
gentine goods. The negotiations will
not be opened, however, until Senior
Merou receives explicit instructions from
his government.