New-York tribune., 1907-08-30
CUBAN TRADE DELUSIONS.

Our Republican neighbor The New York
Press" says that we are afflicted with falllhg
eyesght' because in common with most or our
contemporaries, Republican and Democratic,
we find cause for satisfaction In the workings
of the reciprocity treaty with Cuba. We pup
lished a day OF two ago the returns or rade
with Cuba for the fiscal year 19o8'07. furnished
by the bureau of statistics OF the Department
Of Commerce and Labor. and commented on
the fact that since the Bliss-Zaldo treaty went
into effect our annual sales TO Cuba have In
creased from S21. .TG1, 900 to S49,305,0oo-a gain
Of 125 per cent-while Cuba's sales TO the
United States have increased from S62S42Uoo
IN S97 AL OOO-a gain of only 30 per cent. AS
the reciprocity treaty framed expressly TO
stimulate trade between the two countries ana
from the American point of view to reduce an
. excessive adverse trade balance, we expressed
the opinion that II had successfully done the
work expected of IT.
"Tbe Press" seems to think that the tariff
agreement Is n failure merely because the nor
nal adverse trade balance has not been entirely
wiped out II argues that on the returns for
19O6-'O7 the United States was out forty-eight
millions" and that this is a much larger sum
than this country should have been out TO
make good this contention II asserts that the
normal balance of trade is not heavily against
us and cites the returns for 1S99-190O, 19oo'01
!
the aid Of a reciprocity treaty. our losses" on
exchanges with Cuba were smaller than they
have been since the reciprocity treaty was rati-
! fed.
1t is manlfestly misleading. however. to take
the returns for the years Immediately following
the war with Spain as refectng the normal
commercial relations between the two coun-
tries In those years Cuban industry was pros
trated, and under the American occupation
to g,,,r1n
the United States. From 1890 to 1902 imports
averaged S26OOOOOO and exports to the United
States fiuctuated between S31 100000 and S43.-
900 900 Going back to 1S94-'95 before the in
surrecti0n had greatly disturbed industry. the
exports to the United States were S52S71,OOO
and the imports from the United States were
ONLY S12 sol, 600. and that ratio had held pretty
steadily for long period. Something like the
normal balance was struck again in 1902 o3,
when the sugar and tobacco industries revived
and Cuban sales TO this country rose TO S62,-
942 600 while purchases stood at S21, I61 O0O
We buy large quantities of sugar and to-
bacco from Cuba-those staples constituting
nearly nine-tenths of our total Cuban importa-
tons We should probably buy nearly as much
sugar and tobacco without reciprocity as with
reciprocity since the demand in our market
for these staples is well established and con-
slant Our problem was to make our market
a little more ATTRACTIVE TO the CuDan producer
and at the same time to open a return market
for goods which Cuba had hitherto bought
largely from other countries. The concession
on Cuban sugar did not affect the price Of sugar
here or iniure in any way the domestic sugar
producer. since the market price here is still
determined by those foreign sugars which pay
the full Dingley duty. But by making a con-
cession which counts for practically nothing at
home we have been enabled to compete to bet
ter advantage in the Cuban market with Euro
pean producers and have, In fact sold to Cuba
In 1905 'O6 and 1906-O7 more than twice as
much as we sold in 1903 and nearly four times
as much as we sold in 1895.
II is equally misleading TO suggest THE
Press does, that this country is spending the
full amount of the adverse balance Of trade 10
get a little increased business in Cuba. We have
to import from foreign countries about three
ffths of the sugar which we consume. We
might as well take liberal portion of that
sugar from Cuba from any other alien pro
ducer and il costs not an additional cent to the
consumer here TO admit Cuban sugar more
ders one-fifth of the tariff tax imposed on other
alien sugars. and there the "cost' OF reciprocity
with Cuba ends We can hardly hope TO have
favorable balance of trade with tropical
countries like Cuba or Brazil, from which we
draw LARGE quantities of non-competine prod
ucts But it is worth while so to adjust our
trade relations with such countries as to open