10 THE CUBA REVIEW 
a ——— 
Cuban Brief on Tariff 
Minister de Cespedes of Cuba, on behalf 
of the Cuban Commercial Mission to the 
United States, has presented a formal 
memorandum to the Senate Finance Com- 
mittee, urging a reduction in United States 
tariff rates on Cuban products or an in- 
crease in the preferential provided for by 
the reciprocity treaty. 
Tables accompanying the brief show 
that exports from thé United States to 
Cuba in 1914, aggregating $515,000,000, 
were exceeded only by those to the United 
Kingdom, Canada and France, while the 
Cuban outward trade to this country ex- 
ceeded that to all South America combined. 
In reference to sugar the brief states: 
“On May 27, 1921, Cuba was selling her 
sugar at 3.875 cents a pound. The Emer- 
gency Tariff Act was signed by President 
Harding on the night of the 27th, and went 
into effect on the 28th; immediately there- 
after Cuban sugar depreciated to the ex- 
tent of 60 cents per 100 pounds, which is 
exactly the difference between the old and 
the new tariff rate on sugar for Cuba, 
equivalent to about $2 per bag. This 
means, on our production of 26,000,000 
bags, a loss of $52,000,000 a year; but 
confining our figures to this year’s crop, as 
16,000,000 bags were unshipped at the time 
the Emergency Tariff Act was signed, we 
may say that Cuba had an actual loss of 
$32,000,000 over night. 
“The carry-over was the result of the 
world-wide inflation of 1920, and the large 
production was due to the strenuous efforts 
made by Cuba during the last two years 
of the World War to meet the Allies’ press- 
ing demands for sugar. We were asked 
by the United States Government to pro- 
duce this commodity needed by the Allies 
to the extent of the latter’s requirements 
and practically with the sole limitation of 
our producing capacity. It is fair to re- 
member that through this contribution of 
Cuba to the Allies’ cause, a veritable sugar 
famine in the United States and European 
countries was averted. 
“If the duty on sugar imposed by the 
Emergency Tariff is perpetuated by the 
Fordney Act now under consideration, our 
sugar will be reduced in value thereby and 
the rate accorded us by the reciprocity 
treaty between the United States and Cuba, 
which is in existence, will be utterly in- 
sufficient to achieve, from our Cuban point 
of view, its only object and fundamental 
purpose: a mutual protection and recipro- 
cal benefits. 
“Tf Cuba is not fairly treated on the basis 
of true reciprocity, she cannot produce 
sugar to any extent, and these undesirable 
conditions will bring about the total col- 
lapse of our economic structure, with im- 
mense losses to the American investors 
doing a legitimate business in Cuba; to the 
present American creditors who will have 
no way of collecting the large sums of 
money due them; to the American manu- 
facturers, farmers, and exporters at large, 
who will lose a market that ranks fourth in 
importance in the world today and which 
may still be developed further; and with a 
positive loss to the American consumer of 
sugar, who will eventually have to import 
more than 50 per cent. of his total con- 
sumption from other countries—from coun- 
tries which produce sugar at a higher cost 
and on which they will have to pay heavier 
freights. Besides. such exporters of sugar 
to the United States will not certainly buy 
from you the enormous amount of goods 
that Cuba is buying at present. 
“Furthermore, Paragraph 502 delivers 
the producer, both American and Cuban, 
of Cuban sugar, entirely at the mercy of 
the American refiners, by awarding a 25 
per cent. decrease in the rate of duty, on 
all sugars imported by American refiners 
and manufacturers into the United States 
for refining purposes, to the extent of two 
pounds for each pound refined from sugar, 
either cane or beet, grown in the conti- 
nental United States. This will, it is true, 
encourage the American refiner and manu- 
facturer to use as much sugar produced in 
the continental United States as possible, 
as by so doing he will be entitled to import 
a greater quantity of other sugars, enjoying 
a 25 per cent. duty preferential. But it 
will also make it impossible for the Cuban, 
American and other producers of Cuban 
sugar, as well as Philippine, Hawaiian and 
Porto Rican sugar, the same not being pro- 
duced in the continental United States, to 
import into and sell in the markets of the 
United States any sugar in competition 
with American refiners, who will have a 25 
per cent. advantage in cost. Will this not 
