One other very important matter is that of our old friend, Tariff Rule 1, which figured in last year's agenda and was discussed at very great length during the recent revision of the Tariff. The view put forward by the Associat-Chambers last year and by the Shanghai Chamber during the revision, namely, that the dutiable basis of ad valorem goods should be their c.i.f. cost—that is to say, their landed cost in bond—had the support of a majority of the delegates on the Revision Commission, but not that either of the Japanese or the Chinese, whilst the American delegates also voted against it. It is proposed, accordingly, to take up the matter again, one reason for doing so being the existence of considerable dissatisfaction at the continuance of the practice of adding 20 per cent. to the c.i.f. invoice value of goods imported by retail firms.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.