INTRODUCTION.

The following compilation has been prepared by the United States Tariff Commission pursuant to a request by the Committee on Finance of the Senate for a summary of pertinent information upon the bill H. R. 7456 (the Fordney bill) as passed by the House of Representatives and now pending in the Senate.

Treatment naturally falls into two main divisions, as follows:

1. Descriptive and economic data on commodities mentioned in the bill, covering description and uses of the articles, and information concerning their production, importation, and exportation.

2. Discussion of the form of the bill, including mention of important changes in classification made by the Committee on Ways and Means and the reasons therefor, notation of some provisions which appear to be inconsistent, and the suggestion of certain textual changes.

The principal sources of information have been the commodity surveys and reports of the Tariff Commission, especially the "Summary of Tariff Information, 1920." The material in the latter has been amplified and brought up to date.

General statistics were obtained for the most part from official publications or directly from Government departments, as follows: Statistics of manufactures from the United States Census; of minerals and earth products from the Geological Survey; of agricultural products from the Department of Agriculture; of imports and exports from the Department of Commerce.

The special commodity surveys to which reference has been made above should be consulted for more extended discussion of the subjects appearing in this volume. Under the various subtitles will be found references to these surveys, as, for example:

BLEACHING POWDER.

(See Survey A-5.)

This means that bleaching powder is treated at length in the commission's Tariff Information Survey A-5. The reports cited in this manner may be obtained in most cases from the Superintendent of Documents at the Government Printing Office or directly from the commission to a limited extent.

In a few cases other abbreviations have been used. “T. I. S." refers to "Tariff Information Series," "M. S." refers to "Miscellaneous Series" (unnumbered), and "W. M." to "Reports to Committee on Ways and Means" (unnumbered).

The tabulated import and export statistics cover calendar years, those in the text fiscal years, unless otherwise indicated. "Imports are "imports for consumption," except in some instances where" general imports" are specifically mentioned. The term "tons" used in relation to imports and exports means "long tons." Statistics of production, without definite reference to country, relate to the United States.

Statistics of imports and exports, classified in "Commerce and Navigation" according to the paragraphs of the tariff act of 1913, have been brought as far as possible under the new classification of the bill H. R. 7456, but in a number of cases the figures could not be made to apply exactly to the items in the new bill. Statistics of duties for 1921 were not available and were therefore necessarily omitted from the tables and elsewhere.

Under the heading "Suggested changes" obvious reasons for such suggested changes are omitted.

At the end of the free list on page 1485 is a tabulation of articles transferred from the free list of the act of 1913 (as modified) to the dutiable schedules of the bill H. R. 7456, and of articles transferred from the dutiable schedules of the act of 1913 to the free list of the bill H. R. 7456.

Suggested changes.-Importations into the Philippine Islands from foreign countries are subject to the rates of duty prescribed in the Philippine tariff act of August 5, 1909 (ch. 8, 36 Stat., 130). The act of March 3, 1917 (ch. 171, sec. 4, 39 Stat., 1133), made im

portations into the Virgin Islands subject to the laws in force there at the time of cession to the United States by Denmark. Products of the United States are admitted free into both of those possessions. Duties are collected upon importations into Guam and Tutuila under a tariff administered by the Navy Department, there having been no legislation governing imports into those islands. Products of the United States shipped to Tutuila are subject to duty or exempt from duty the same as like importations from foreign countries. Products of the United States going into Guam are exempt from duty. Under existing laws merchandise can not be shipped to Tutuila or to Guam for drawback of duties nor be withdrawn from bonded warehouses in the United States for shipment thereto without payment of duties. (Art. 200, Cust. Regs. of 1915.)

The Panama Canal Zone is not a possession of the United States but is a place subject to its jurisdiction for maintenance of the canal. (27 Op. Atty. Gen., 594, of 1909.) Shipments between the United. States and the Canal Zone are treated in all respects as shipments to and from foreign countries. (Act of Mar. 2, 1905; Kaufman v. Smith, 216 U. S., 610, of 1910.) The customs administration of said Zone is under the jurisdiction of the War Department. (Art. 201, Cust. Regs, of 1915.)

Section 401 (p) of Title IV of H. R. 7456 defines the term "United States" for the purposes of the whole act, and therefore applies to Title I, the dutiable list, and Title II, the free list, of H. R. 7456. The purpose of the definition, as suggested by the Tariff Commission in its report of August 26, 1918, upon the customs administrative laws, was to give the President authority in the absence of legislation to treat the insular possessions and the Panama Canal Zone as foreign or domestic, according to the needs for administrative purposes. Unless, therefore, the word "act" in section 401 (p) of Title IV of H. R. 7456 shall be changed to "title" there will be a conflict with the above provision in section 1 of Title I of H. R. 7456, and also with the first part of section 201 of Title II of H. R. 7456.