Shufeldt Treaty

TREATY OF AMITY AND COMMERCE BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND COREA

Signed at Yin-chuen, in Chinese and English, May 22, 1882.
Ratifications exchanged at Seoul, May 19, 1883.

The United States of America and the Kingdom of Chosen, being sincerely desirous of establishing permanent relations of amity and friendship between their respective peoples, have to this end appointed, that is to say: the President of the United States, R. W. SHUFELDT, Commodore, U. S. Navy, as his Commissioner Plenipotentiary; and His Majesty the King of Chosen, SHIN CHEN, President of the Royal Cabinet, CHIN HONG-CHI, Member of the Royal Cabinet as his Commissioners Plenipotentiary; who, having reciprocally examined their respective full powers, which have been found to be in due form, have agreed upon the several following Articles:

ARTICLE I.

There shall be perpetual peace and friendship between the President of the United States and the King of Chosen and the citizens and subjects of their respective Governments.

If other Powers deal unjustly or oppressively with either Government, the other will exert their good offices, on being informed of the case, to bring about an amicable arrangement, thus showing their friendly feelings.

ARTICLE II.

After the conclusion of this Treaty of Amity and Commerce, the High Contracting Powers may each appoint Diplomatic Representatives to reside at the Court of the other, and may each appoint Consular Representatives at the ports of the other, which are open to Foreign commerce, at their own convenience.

These officials shall have relations with the corresponding local authorities of equal rank upon a basis of mutual equality.

The Diplomatic and Consular Representatives of the two Governments shall receive mutually all the privileges, right, and immunities, without discrimination, which are accorded to the same classes of representatives from the most favoured nation.

Consuls shall exercise their functions only on receipt of an exequatur from the Government to which they are accredited. Consular authorities shall be bona fide officials. No merchants shall be permitted to exercise the duties of the office, nor shall Consular Officers be allowed to engage in trade. At ports to which no Consular Representatives have been appointed, the Consuls of other Powers may be invited to act, provided that no merchant shall be allowed to asuume Consular functions, or the provisions of this Treaty may, in such case, be enforced by the local authorities.

If Consular Representatives of the United States in Chosen conduct their business in an improper manner, their exequaturs may be revoked, subject to the approval, previously obtained, of the Diplomatic Representative of the United States.

ARTICLE III.

Whenever United States' vessels, either because of stress of weather or by want of fuel or provisions, cannot reach the nearest open port in Chosen, they may enter any port or harbour either to take refuge therein or to get supplies of wood, coal, and other necessaries, or to make repairs, the expenses incurred thereby being defrayed by the ship's master. In such event, the officers and people of the locality shall display their sympathy by rendering full assistance, and their liberality by furnishing the necessities required.

If a United States' vessel carries on a clandestine trade at a port not open to foreign commerce, such vessel, with her cargo, shall be seized and confiscated.

If a United States' vessel be wrecked on the coast of Chosen, the local authorities, on being informed of the occurrence, shall immediately render assistance to the crew, provide for their present necessities, and take the measures necessary for the salvage of the ship and the preservation of her cargo. They shall also bring the matter to the knowledge of the nearest Consular Representative of the United States, in order that steps may be taken to send the crew home and to save the ship and cargo. The necessary expenses shall be defrayed either by the ship's master or by the United States.

ARTICLE IV.

All citizens of the United States of America in Chosen, peaceably attending to their own affairs, shall receive and enjoy for themselves and everything appertaining to them the protection of the local authorities of the Government of Chosen, who shall defend them from all insult and injury of any sort. If their dwellings or property be threatened or attacked by mobs, incendiaries, or other violent or lawless persons, the local officers, on requisition of the Consul, shall immediately despatch a military force to disperse the rioters, apprehend the guilty individuals and punish them with the utmost rigour of the law.

Subject of Chosen, guilty of any criminal act towards citizens of the United States, shall be punished by the authorities of Chosen according to the laws of Chosen; and citizens of the United States, either on shore or in any merchant vessel, who may insult, trouble, or wound the persons or injure the property of the people of Chosen, shal be arrested and punished only by the United States thereto authorized, according to the laws of the United States.

When controversies arise in the Kingdom of Chosen between citizens fo the United States and subjects of His Majesty, Which need to be examined and decided by the public officers of the two nations, it is agreed between the two Governments fo the United States and Chosen that such cases shall be tried by the proper official of the nationality of the dependant, according to the laws of that nation.

The properly authorized official of the plaintiff's nationality shall freely permitted to attend the trial, and shall be treated with the courtesy due to his position. He shall be granted all proper facilities for watching the proceedings in the interests of justice. If he so desires, he shall have the right to present, to examine, and to cross-examine witnesses. If he is dissatisfied with the proceedings, he shall be permitted to protest against them in detail.

It is, however, mutually agreed and understood between the High Contracting Powers, that whenever the King of Chosen shall have so far modified and reformed the statutes and judicial procedure of his Kingdom that, in the judgment of the United States, they conform to the laws and course of justice in the United States, the right of exterritorial jurisdiction over United States' citizens in Chosen shall be abandoned, and thereafter United States' citizens, when within the limits of the Kingdom of Chosen, shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the native authorities.

ARTICLE V.

Merchants and merchant vessels of Chosen visiting the United States for purpose of traffic shall pay duties and tonnage dues and all fees according to the customs regulations of the United States, but no higher or other rates of duties and tonnage dues shall be exacted of them than levied upon citizens of the United States or upon citizens or subjects of the most favoured nation.

Merchants and merchant vessels of the United States visiting Chosen for purposes of traffic shall pay duties upon all merchandise imported and exported. The authority to levy duties is of right vested in the Government of Chosen. The tariff of duties upon exports and imports, together with the customs regulations for the prevention of smuggling and other irregularities, will be fixed by the authorities of Chosen and communicated to the proper officials of the United States, to be by the latter notified to their citizens and duly observed.

It is, however, agreed in the first instance, as a general measure, that the tariff upon such imports as are articles of daily use shall not exceed an ad ralorem duty of the per centum; that the tariff upon such imports as are luxuries, as, for instance, foreign wines, foreign tobacco, clocks and watches, shall not exceed an ad ralorem duty of thirty per centum; and that native produce exported shall pay a duty not to exceed five per centum ad ralorem. And it is further agreed that the duty upon foreign imports shall be paid once for all at the port of entry, and that no other dues, duties, fees, taxes, or charges of any sort shall be levied upon such imports either in the interior of Chosen or at the ports.

United States' merchant vessels entering the ports of Chosen shall pay tonnage dues at the rate of five mace per ton, payable once in three months on each vessel, according to the Chinese calendar.

ARTICLE VI.

Subjects of Chosen who may visit the United States shall be permitted to reside and to rent premises, purchase land, or to construct residences or warehouse, in all parts of the country. They shall be freely permitted to pursue their various callings and avocations, and to traffic in all merchandise, raw and manufactured, that is not declared contraband by law.

Citizens of the United States who may resort to the ports of Chosen which are open to foreign commerce shall be permitted to reside at such open to foreign commerce shall be permitted to reside at such open ports within the limis of the concessions, and to lease buildings or land, or to construct residences or warehouses therein. They shall be freely permitted to pursue their various callings and avocations within the limits of the ports, and to traffic in all merchandise, raw and manufactured, that is not declared contraband by law.

No coercion or intimidation in the acquisition of land or buildings shall be permitted, and the land rent as fixed by the Authorities of Chosen shall be paid. And it is expressly agreed that land so acquired in the open ports of Chosen still remains an integral part of the Kingdom, and that all rights of jurisdiction over persons and property within such areas remain vested in the Authorities of Chosen, except in so far as such rights have been expressly relinquished by this Treaty.

American citizens are not permitted either to transport foreign imports to the interior for sale or to proceed thither to purchase native produce. Nor are they permitted to transport native produce from one open port to another open port.

Violations of this rule will subject such merchandise to confiscation, and the merchant effending will be handed over to the Consular authorities to be dealt with.

ARTICLE VII.

The Governments of the United States and of Chosen mutually agree and undertake that subjects of Chosen shall not be permitted to import opium into any of the ports of the United States, and citizens of the United States shall not be permitted to import opium into any of the open ports of Chosen, to transport it from one open port to another open port, or to traffic in it in Chosen. This absolute prohibition, which extends to vessels owned by the citizens or subjects of either Power, to foreign vessels employed by them, and to vessels owned by the citizens or subjects of either Power and employed by other persons or the transportation of opium, shall be enforced by appropriate legislation on the part of the United States and of Chosen, and offenders against it shall be severly punished.

ARTICLE VIII.

Whenever the Government of Chosen shall have reason to apprehend a scarcity of food within the limits of the Kingdom, His Majesty may, by Decree temporarily prohibit the export of all breadstuffs, and such Decree shall be binding on all citizens of the United States in Chosen, upon due notice having teen given them by the Authorities of Chosen through the proper officers of the United States; but it is to be understood that the exportation of rice and breadstuffs of every description is prohibited from the open port of Yin-chuen.

Chosen having of old prohibited the exportation of red ginseng, if citizens of the United States clandestinely purchase it for export, it shall be confiscated, and the offenders punished.

ARTICLE IX.

The purchase of cannon, small arms, swords, gunpowder, shot, and all munitions of war is permitted only to officials of the Government of Chosen, and they may be imported by citizens of the United States only under a written permit from the Authorities of Chosen. If these articles are clandestinely imported, they shall be confiscated, and the offending party shall be punished.

ARTICLE X.

The officers and people of either nation residing in the other shall have the right to employ natives for all kinds of lawful work.

Should, however, subjects of Chosen, guilty of violation of the laws of the Kingdom, or against whom any action has been brought, conceal themselves in the residences or warehouses of United States, citizens or on board United States, merchant vessels, the Consular authorities of the United States, on being notified of the fact by the local authorities, will either permit the latter to despatch constables to make the arrests or the persons will be arrested by the Consular authorities and handed over to the local constables.

Officials or citizens of the United States shall not harbour such persons.

ARTICLE XI.

Students of either nationality who may proceed to the country of the other, in order to study the language, literature, laws, or arts, shall be given all possible protection and assistance, in evidence of cordial goodwill.

ARTICLE XII.

This being the first Treaty negotiated by Chosen, and hence being general and incomplete in its provision, shall, in the first instance, be put into operation in all things stipulated herein. As to stipulations not contained herein, after an interval of five years, when the officers and people of the two Powers shall have become more further negotiation of commercial provisions and regulations in detail, in conformity with international law and without unequal discriminations on either part, shall be had.

ARTICLE XIII.

This Treaty and future official correspondence between the two contraction Governments shall be made, on the part of Chosen, in the Chinese language.

The United States shall either use the Chinese language, or, if English be used, it shall be accompanied with a Chinese version in order to avoid misunderstanding.

ARTICLE XIV.

The High Contracting Powers hereby agree that should at any time the King of Chosen grant to any nation, or to the merchants or citizens of any nation, any right, privilege, or favour, connected either with navigation, commerce, political or other intercourse, which is not conferred by this Treaty, such right, privilege, and favour shall freely inure to the benefit of the United States, its public officers, merchants, and citizens; provided always, that whenever such right, privilege, or favour is accompanied by any condition or equivalent concession granted by he other nation interested, the United States, its officers and people, shall only be entitled to the benefit of such right, privilege, or favour upon complying with the conditions or concessions connected therewith

In faith whereof, the respective Commissioners Plenipotentiary have sighed and sealed the foregoing, at Yin-chuen, in English and Chinese, being three originals of each text, of even tenor and date, the ratification of which one year from the date of its execution, and immediately thereafter this Treaty shall be in all its provisions publicly proclaimed and made known by both Governments in their respective countries, in order that it may be obeyed by their citizens and subjects respectively.

Chosen, May the 22nd, A. D. 1882.
[L. S.] (Signed) R. W. SHUFELDT.
Commodore, U. S. N., Envoy of the U. S. to Chosen.

[SL. S.] (Signed) SHIN CHEN
[L. S.] (Sighend) CHIN HONG-CHI
(In Chinese.)