The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-09-29
Customs Tariff of Other Lands
 Object of Study


 days of Pan-An erican trade confer ences, when business men through out the United States have been giv- ing more attention to the possibiIities es of world trade, the statement has been made time and again that some government office should make a Hthorough-going study of the customs tariffs of foreign countries. This de- mand has served to bring into the lime Ight the Division of Foreign Tariffs of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Department of Commerce. In that government of flee the intricacies of foreign customs tariffs and foreign customs procedure have been given exclusive considera- ton for the past 10 years There are on file the customs tariffs of every country and colony in the world, with a systematic collection of the cus- toms regulations, and wealth of1n formation on foreign customs proce- dure, foreign consular regulations, and, more recently, foreign patent and trademark laws. This office has a.lho paid attention to the sucject of and is now vestigating the commer- .cial laws of South America.
 Through careful inspection of for eign official gazettes, supplemen ented by consular officers, commercial at taches, and special agents, every
 
 regu1ationsf is promptly recorded by the bureau, whose files have the dis ,Hnetion of being the most complete along these lines to be found in the country. A large number of Aneri- can firms have been finding this ser vice invaluable all these yearsl while some of their competitors have been worrying along in ignorance of the existence of such a source of infof- nation in Washington.
 The tariff work of the bureau con- sists to a large extent in the dfstri- button of information among ATTleri- can exporters in regard to foreign rates of import duty on the particular articles in which they are interested. The bureau is also frequently called upon by American exporters to help them out in their difficulties with the and particularly Latin-Anaerican countries, and for guidance in mak- ing out their shipping documents. Many an exporter has had the un- pleasant experience of paying his customers fines, because he did not exercise sufficient care in preparing the shipping documents, and there are cases on record where promising customers were lost on account of Sthe exporters neglect or ignorance of the customs fregula tions of the Latin American country to which he was shipping his goods.
 One of the most important branches of the tariff work of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce is the preparation of tariff memoranda for the use of the Department of State in connection with the hegotia- ton of cominerciaI treaties or to serve as a basis for diplomatic repre- sentations in regard to foreign cus-, toms requirements that are found detfim ental to the interests of Ameri- can exporters. In preparing such m memoranda, it has been found -neces- sary,l not only to study the tariffs and customs regulations of the countries involved. most of which were Latin American countries, but also to in- .Yestigate numerous complaints trans mitted by American exporters and to initiate Investigations in regard to the effect of certain tariff features of for eign countries on the export trade of the United States with those coun- tries. As a result of such sinvestiga- tions the bureau has acquired a con- siderable amount of information in regard to the administration and the practical effect of the Latin-Ameri- can tariffs and customs regulations and is in q position to assist Ameri- can exporters in their efforts to en- ter the Latin-American markets.