United States Statutes at Large/Volume 3/17th Congress/2nd Session/Chapter 25
Chap. XXV.—An Act for carrying into effect the Convention on navigation and commerce between the United States and France, concluded at Washington, on the twenty-fourth day of June, eighteen hundred and twenty-two.
Act of May 15, 1820, ch. 126, respecting tonnage duty on French vessels, repealed.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the act to impose a new tonnage duty on French ships and vessels, approved on the fifteenth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, be, and the same is hereby, repealed.
From and after Sep. 30, 1822, French goods imported in French vessels to pay an additional duty of $3,75 per ton.
Proviso.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That, for the term of two years, from and after the thirtieth day of September last, articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture, of France, imported into the United States, in French vessels, shall pay an additional duty of three dollars and seventy-five cents per ton of merchandise, according to the tenor of the convention of navigation and commerce between the United States and France, concluded on the twenty-fourth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-two, over and above the duties collected upon the like articles, also of the growth, produce, or manufacture, of France, when imported in vessels of the United States: Provided always, That no discriminating duty shall be levied upon the productions of the soil or industry of France, imported in French bottoms, into the ports of the United States, for transit or re-exportation.
At the expiration of two years, extra duties to be diminished one-fourth of the whole amount, and so from year to year.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That, from and after the expiration of two years from the said thirtieth day of September last, in case of the continuance in force of the said Convention, and so long as the same shall continue in force, the extra duties, specified in the second section of this act, shall, from and after the said thirtieth day of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-four, be diminished by one-fourth of their whole amount; and, afterwards, by one-fourth of said amount, from year to year, so long as neither of the parties to the said convention shall have declared the intention of renouncing the same, in the manner therein provided, and until the whole of such discriminating and extra duty shall have been done away.
Tonnage duty, light-money, &c., for French vessels not to exceed 94 cents per ton of the vessel’s French passport.Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That, during the continuance in force of the said convention, the duties of tonnage, light money, pilotage, port charges, brockerage, [brokerage,] and all other duties, upon foreign shipping, over and above those paid by vessels of the United States, other than those specified in the second section of this act, shall not exceed, for French vessels, in the ports of the United States, ninety-four cents per ton of the vessel’s French passport.
Extra duties levied before June 24 last to be refunded.Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized to cause to be refunded, from any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, any extra duties, levied before the twenty-fourth day of June last, by virtue of the act of Congress of the fifteenth of May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, imposing a new tonnage duty on French ships or vessels.
Upon ratification of second separate article of the convention, the extra duties to be levied only on the excess of value of imports over that of exports.Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That, if the second separate article of the said convention, concluded on the twenty-fourth of June last, should be ratified by both the contracting parties thereto, and the ratifications thereof should be exchanged, on or before the twenty-third day of June next, then, from and after the expiration of two months, subsequent to the said exchange of ratifications, and during the continuance in force of the said separate article, the extra duties specified in the second section of this act shall be levied only upon the excess of value of the merchandise imported into the United States in any French vessel, over the value of the merchandise exported from the United States in the same vessel, upon the same voyage; so that, if the value of the articles exported shall equal or exceed that of the articles imported in the same vessel, (not including articles imported for transit or re-exportation,) no such extra duties shall be levied: and if the articles exported are less in value than those imported, the extra duties shall be levied only upon the amount of difference of their value.
Acts incompatible with the convention repealed.Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That all acts, or parts of acts, of Congress, incompatible with the execution of each and every article of the said convention, concluded on the twenty-fourth of June last, and of its ratified separate article, be, and the same are hereby, repealed.
Approved, March 3, 1823.