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COMMERCIAL  INTELLIGENCE  COMMITTEE  :

APPENDIX  D.

Copy  of  Report  by  the  Committee  to  the  Board  of  Trade
respecting  the  German  Tariff.  (See  p.  11.)

TO  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  TRADE.
Sir,
WE  have  had  under  consideration  the  draft  of  the  new  German  Customs
Tariff  Bill  and  the  question  of  its  probable  effect,  if  enacted  in  its  original
shape,  on  the  trade  and  industry  of  this  country,  which  matters  have  been
submitted  to  us  for  opinion.  We  have  also  had  before  us  a  statement
comparing  the  existing  and  proposed  new  rates  of  import  duties  in  Germany
on  the  principal  articles  of  export  from  the  United  Kingdom  to  that  country,
which  was  prepared  for  our  use  by  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  has  since  been
published  as  a  Parliamentary  paper  ;  and  we  have  consulted  the  principal
Chambers  of  Commerce  throughout  the  kingdom,  as  well  as  some  other
important  trade  organisations,  as  to  their  views  with  regard  to  the  probable
bearing  of  the  tariff  upon  the  trades  and  industries  of  their  respective
districts.  We  attach  a  copy  of  the  tariff  statement  referred  to,  and  a  copy
of  a  summary  of  the  replies  received  from  the  Chambers  of  Commerce,  &amp;c.
to  the  inquiries  we  addressed  to  them.*
Before  offering  any  observations  on  the  details  of  the  proposed  tariff  as
officially  published,  we  may  mention  that  we  have  been  given  to  understand
that  a  memorandum  embodying  the  main  features  of  our  Report  of  May  17th,
1901,  which  was  based  on  preliminary  information  only,  was  duly  brought
before  the  German  Government.  On  the  whole,  the  observations  we  made  in
that  Report  hold  good  now,  the  changes  proposed  in  the  Tariff  Bill,  so  far  as
regards  the  points  we  then  dealt  with,  confirming  generally  the  information
upon  which  our  observations  were  founded.
We  also  understand  that  a  memorial  from  the  Association  of  Chambers  of
Commerce,  a  copy  of  which  is  appended,  was  brought  under  the  notice  of
the  German  Government  officially  in  October  last,  with  an  intimation  that
their  tariff  proposals  were  regarded  with  grave  apprehension  in  this  country,
and  with  an  expression  of  the  hope  that,  in  the  best  interests  of  the  commercial ­
  relations  of  the  United  Kingdom  and  Germany,  the  recommendations
contained  in  it  might  receive  favourable  consideration.
We  may  say  at  once  that  a  closer  consideration  of  the  full  details
of  the  Tariff  Bill,  as  officially  published,  has  in  no  way  mitigated  the
apprehensions  to  which  the  earlier  statements  as  to  what  was  in  contemplation ­
  gave  rise.  Indeed,  the  more  extended  range  of  our  inquiries  among
commercial  bodies  on  this  occasion,  and  the  more  exhaustive  examination
of  the  proposals  those  bodies  have  been  able  to  make,  show  that  the  opinion
is  strongly  held  on  every  hand  that  if  the  Bill  be  enacted  in  anything
like  the  shape  in  which  it  has  been  laid  before  the  German  legislature,
the  result  on  our  export  trade  to  Germany,  and  also,  perhaps,  not  less
on  German  export  trade  to  the  United  Kingdom,  will  be  most  prejudicial.
Any  restriction  upon  or  impediment  in  the  way  of  international  trade  in  one
direction,  such  as  a  large  and  general  increase  of  customs  duties  necessarily
implies,  can  hardly  fail  to  have  some  effect  in  restricting  trade  in  the  other
direction,  and  there  can  be  no  question  that  in  respect  of  a  large  number  of
articles  of  importance  in  the  British  export  trade  to  Germany  the  draft  tariff
proposes  to  raise  the  German  import  duties  to  an  extent  which  would  entail
detrimental  effects  upon  the  trade  of  both  nations.
The  official  British  trade  statistics  show  that  the  value  of  the  direct
imports  into  this  country  from  Germany  on  the  average  of  the  three  years

*  Not  printed.