INDUSTRIAL andENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
NEWS EDITION Vol. 1 4 , No. 1 0
MAY 20, 1936
Vol. 28, Consecutive No. 18
Published by t h e American Chemical Society Harrison E. Howe, Editor Publication Offices Easton, Pa. Cablet Jieobem (Washington)
Editorial Offices R o o m 706, Mills Building, W a s h i n g t o n , D . C. Advertising Departments 332 Weet 42nd Street, New York, N . Y.
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Number of Chemical Items Affected by New Trade Agreement with France OTTO WILSON, 3025 Fifteenth Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. LONG-AWAITED trade agreement was signed between the United States and France on May 6. It will go into effect June 15 and will continue to run until July 1.1937, unless sooner terminated in accordance with certain special provisions. After that date it will continue indefinitely, subject to termination by either country on six months' notice. The new agreement is heralded as the first comprehensive commercial agreement with France in more than a century. It brings to an end, for the time being at least, a state of friction in trade relations between the two countries which several years ago threatened to develop into a serious tariff war. Efforts to come to some harmonious arrangement with respect to mutual trade restrictions have heretofore been balked chiefly by the fact that the French had a bargaining tariff system and the United States a system of uniform rates for imports from all foreign countries (except Cuba), thus making it impossible for this country to offer the necessary concessions to obtain the most favorable French rates. The Trade Agreement Act removed this barrier. France has long ranked among the five leading markets Tor our exports, taking 5 to 7 per cent of our shipments abroad in recent years. It has been supplying 3.5 to 4.5 per cent of our imports, ranking usually among the first ten countries in that trade. Various factors brought the export trade down from $265,000,000 in 1929 to $111,000,000 in 1932, from which it rose to $117,000,000 in 1935, and the import trade from $171,000,000 in 1929 to $45,000,000 in 1932, from which it increased to $58,000,000 in 1935. The chief classes of our chemical exports to France have been petroleum and derivatives; coal-tar pitch, benzene, and crude coal tar; carbon black: crude sulfur; and sulfite wood pulp. Leading imports from France have been wines; spirits, cordials, and liqueurs; perfume materials, perfumery, and toilet waters; essential and distilled oils; vanilla beans; sodium cyanide; edible olive oil; and glycerol.
A
U. S. Concessions t o France Concessions made by the United States to France are chiefly in the form of actual reductions in tariff rates. These reduc-
tions affect 51 tariff paragraphs of the act of 1930, and involve 71 items which in 1935 accounted for about $19,000,000 of the total imports from France of $58,000,000. In addition, the duties on two items are bound against increase. The leading articles on which reductions are granted are cigaret paper, brandy, champagne, still wines and vermuth, vanilla beans, lace, tinsel products, broad silks, and Roquefort cheese. The rates on all these items except vanilla beans had been increased in the tariff act of 1922, and on Roquefort cheese and broad silks the rates were again increased in 1930. On a number of these items the equivalent ad valorem rate in 1934 worked out at more than 75 per cent. Following is the list of articles of chemical interest on which the United States grants duty concessions, together with the old rate, the new rate, and the value of our imports from France in 1935: Trichloroethylene, old rate 30 per cent ad valorem, new rate 15 per cent, imports $21,138; flavoring extracts containing 20 per cent or less of alcohol, old rate of 20 cents per pound and 25 per cent reduced to 15 cents per pound and 18 per cent, imports $6,384; cellulose acetate made into finished or partly finished articles, 80 per cent reduced to 40 per cent, imports $7,918; glue size and fish glue, n. s. p. f., valued at less than 40 cents a pound, duty reduced from 2 cents per pound and 25 per cent to 1 cent per pound and 15 per cent, imports, none: crude glycerol, 1 cent per pound reduced to 0.8 cent per pound, imports $45,245: clove, patchouli, sandalwood, and all other essential or distilled oils, n. s. p. f., 25 per cent reduced to 12.5 per cent, imports $98,660; perfume mixtures, 40 cents a pound and 50 per cent reduced to 40 cents a pound and 30 per cent, imports $389,220; bottled perfumes containing alcohol, 40 cents a pound and 75 per cent reduced to 40 cents a pound and 37.5 per cent, imports $534,758; same not containing alcohol, 75 per cent reduced to 37.5 per cent, imports, none; cosmetics, etc., containing alcohol, 40 cents per pound and 75 per cent reduced to 40 cents per pound and 37.5 per cent, imports $26,843; same not containing alcohol, 75 per cent reduced to 37.5 per cent, imports $78,740; floral waters, n. s. p. f., 193
20 per cent reduced to 10 per cent, imports $7,932; orange mineral, 3 cents per pound reduced to 2.5 cents, imports $368; ochers washed or ground, 0.375 cent per pound reduced to 0.25 cent, imports $123,407; vanilla beans, 30 cents per pound reduced to 15 cents, imports $894,886; white nonstaining Portland cement, 8 cents reduced to 6 cents per 100 pounds (including weight of container), imports $3,195; crystalline flake graphite, crude or refined, old duty 1.65 cents per pound, new duty .30 \nr cent ad valorem but not less than 0.825 cent nor more than 1.65 cents per pound, imports $63,029; brandy, $5 reduced to $2.50 per proof gallon, imports $2,427,955; cordials and liqueurs, $5 reduced to $2.50 per proof gallon, imports $770,942; still wines produced from grapes (except vermuth) containing 14 per cent or less of alcohol, in containers holding one gallon or less, $1.25 reduced to 75 cents per gallon, imports (estimated) $1,026,000; vermuth, $1.25 reduced to 62.5 cents per gallon, imports $719,528. French Concessions to United States According to the State Department. American export trade to France in recent years has suffered more from the quantitative restrictions imposed under the quota system than from excessive tariff rates. French concessions on that account included more changes liberalizing quota restrictions than reductions in tariff rates. The concessions are summarized as follows: (1) Reductions in 19 rates of duty affecting products of which the imports into France from the United States in 1935 were valued at about $3,560,000; (2) continuance of the existing rates on a number of articles on practically all of which the United States already enjoyed the minimum rates of the French tariff, the value of the imports of these articles in 1935 being about $5,140,000; (3) quota concessions on 44 products, either in the form of supplementary quotas or of definite allocations to the United States where no separate allocation had been given heretofore, the value of French imports from the United States of these articles in 1935 being about $13,730,000; (4) assurances with regard to the purchases of American leaf tobacco by the French Tobacco Monopoly for the 1936 season; (5) assurance that the treatment
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of American motion picture films for exhibition in France will be no less favorable than at present. Eliminating duplications, these concessions cover trade items amounting to about $24,500,000 worth of imports from the United States in 1935, or about 40 per cent of the total dutiable imports. In one respect tbe trade agreement with France differs from others in the present series. In most of its own trade agreements made in recent years France has been retaining full freedom of action in changing tariff rates and quota allowances, i n the trade agreement with the United States, according to the State Department, France departs in large measure from this principle, but the present agreement does reserve to the French Government the right under certain circumstances t o increase the rates or modify the quotas granted. However, any increase in duty "may take place only on the first day of a calendar quarter, advance notice of 15 days must be given, the United States is assured the opportunity to discuss the proposed changes with the French Government, and if necessary may make compensatory modifications in its concessions to France or allow the entire agreement to terminate." In addition to specified duty reductions on a number of commodities, all exports from the United States to France and French possessions, with the exception of some articles of minor importance listed in the agreement, will enjoy the benefit of the most favorable tariff treatment accorded to any country. This is held to be a concession of major importance. Heretofore a large number of American products have had t o pay the maximum or intermediate French duties because, as stated, the United States could not bargain for the lower rates. The articles affected by this concession figured in our 1934 export trade with France to the extent of about $6,000,000, but the total was held down b y the application of the higher rates and should be much larger under the new rates. Besides the quota concessions relating to particular articles, the United States, through the operation of the mostfavored-nation principle, will hereafter be allotted a share of tbe total importations permitted by the French Government which will equal the share supplied by this country in a. base period prior to the imposition of such restrictions. Still another concession relates to the so-called "import turnover tax" on American products. This has stood at 6 per cent for most finished manufactures and 4 per cent for most semi-finished manufactures but is now reduced to 2 per cent, the rate applied to domestic sales of similar French products. Chemical products exported to France, so far as the specific lists of commodities named in the agreement are concerned, do not shore very much in the benefits of French concessions. The important classes of these concessions are: (1) specific duty reductions; (2) binding against duty increases on specified articles; (3) reductions resulting automatically from the granting of minimum tariff rates through tbe operation of the most-favorednation clause; (4) increases in quotas, or definite quota allotments; (5) reduction in the "import turnover" tax. No chemical products are included in the first and second classes. Under the third class a number of chemical items would stand to benefit, bat the number is reduced by specific exceptions to the application of the lower rates. Under the fourth class only two or three chemical items benefit. The fifth class, however, includes French imports from the United States generally
and the chemical trade will accordingly receive some benefit. Referring to the third class of concessions mentioned, the duty reductions resulting from the application of minimum rates, the following chemical items are included in the list of those excepted from the reductions: vanillin and its derivatives or substitutes; flowers of mullein, borage, common camomile, marshmallow. mallow, pansies, Provence roses, elder, and violets; sulfur, ground, purified, refined, or sublimated; sodium phosphate; sodium hyposulfite; caustic potash; phenacetin: celluloid (including artificial ivory ana tortoise shell), either rough, in lumps, plates, unworked sheets, etc., or in sheets, polished, dulled, etc.; synthetic resins other than infusible; ultramarine; Prussian blue; printing ink, black, for newspapers, without drier oil, and color inks, other, without drier oil: composite pencils with white casing and pencils for notebooks without tips; carbons for electric arc light and electrodes for electric furnaces, for electrolysis, for hatteries or other uses; ochers, etc.; pulverized talc; paints ground in oil; paints in paste prepared with water or with size, etc.; paints not elsewhere specified, etc.; medicinal adhesive plasters; and compound medicines, not elsewhere specified, appearing in an official pharmacopeia, not packed (for retail trade). The following chemical articles are admitted at the minimum
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tariff rates within the limit of the quantities specified: refined borate of soda (borax), 1,500 quintals (metric quintal equals 220.46 pounds); chromates and bichromates of potassium, 373 quintals; chromates and bichromates of soda, 1,418 quintals. Quota concessions on chemical items are as follows: On hydraulic lime, in blocks or in powder, regardless of the method of packing or shipping, an annual quota of 1,000 quintab is granted. This will be a total quota for the United States since no annual quota is now assigned to this country. In 1935 the value of this trade was 36,000 francs. On butyl alcohol a supplementary quota of 200 quintals a year is granted, in addition to the present allocation of 183 quintab. The French Government will endeavor to maintain the supplementary quota at the figure of 200 quintab, but reserves the right to reduce it to 163 quintab if unforeseen circumstances should make this reduction necessary. On butyl acetate a supplementary quota of 300 quintab is granted, with the reservation of the right to reduce it to 254 quintab if necessary. The present quota is 232 quintab. On varnishes and assimilated paints other than with alcohol, or with cellulose acetate or nitrocellulose base, a supplementary quota of 1,000 quintab is granted. The present quota is 1,878 quintals.
United S t a t e s - G u a t e m a l a Trade Agreement Signed OTTO WILSON, 3025 Fifteenth St., X. W., Washington, D. C. NEW trade agreement, the twelfth in A the series of reciprocal trade agreements effected under the act of 1934 and
1934); unspecified paints, prepared with oil, liquid, or in a thick paste, ready for use, present duty of 10 cents per kilo bound against increase (United States exports to Guatemala were estimated at $67,000 in 1929 and $48,000 in 1934): varnishes prepared with oil, duty reduced from 15 to 10 cents per kilo (exports were $5,412 in 1929 and $3,206 in 1934); and unspecified prepared enamels and lacquers, duty reduced from 20 to 15 cents per kilo (our exports to Guatemala were $15,395 in 1929 and were estimated at $10,000 in 1934). Hog lard and cornstarch are among a long list of articles on which the present duties are bound against increase. The agreement b subject to approval by the Guatemalan Assembly, which is now in session, and b to run three years unless terminated sooner under certain circumstances, and is then to continue indefinitely, subject to termination on six months' notice.
S c h o l a r s h i p s for G r a d u a t e Women in Chemistry THROUGH the kindness of Francis P. Garvan, president of The Chemical Foundation, Inc., two scholarships of six hundred dollars ($600) each have been made available for the year 1936-37 to women graduates in chemistry. Eligibility Applicants must be college graduates who have majored in chemistry, including this year's candidates for a degree. They must be in need of financial assistance in order to be able to carry on graduate work. Their scholastic records and letters of reference must be of such a character as to indicate high ability and promise on the part of the applicant. Applicants must have resided in this country for at least five years.
Applications Applications should include evidence of eligibility as outlined above. They should also contain as references the name of the head of the chemistry department of the applicant's college; a character reference; the name of an employer, if the applicant has held any remunerative position. The name of the university chosen for graduate study should be given. If possible, a recent photograph should be enclosed. Because ofthe time limitation, it is requested that the applicant get in touch with the people whom she is listing as references and ask them to send their letters directly to the chairman of the Women's Service Committee of the
the seventh with a Latin American country, has been signed by the United States and Guatemala. It will go into effect 30 days after proclamation by the presidents of both countries. Duty concessions by the United States are few in number. They consist entirely of duty reductions on honey, pineapples, prepared or preserved, guavas, and mango and guava pastes and pulp, and the prombe to retain bananas, coffee, raw deerskins, and cabinet woods in the log on the free list. In return, Guatemala binds a considerable number of items against increase in tariff rates and grants a few reductions in duty. Of chief interest to chemical dealers are: impure cottonseed oil (used for industrial purposes), a reduction from 4 to 2 cents per kilo (no exports from the United States to Guatemala in 1929 or
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, Lois W.
Woodford, 18 Gramercy Park South. New York. N. Y. Applications ana letters of reference should be in her hands by June 6.
