THE CUBA REVIEW 



13 



American Cotton Goods 



Conditions as regards Cuba are even 

 more favorable for the development of the 

 American cotton goods trade than was the 

 case in the Philippines. In spite of the 

 fact that Cuba consumes over $10,000,000 

 worth of imported cotton goods each year, 

 during 1910 the American manufacturer 

 supplied only $932,382 of this amount, and 

 these figures showed a faUing off from the 

 omount exported to Cuba the preceding 

 year. The United States supphes only 

 about one-sixth of the cotton goods con- 

 sumed in Cuba, in spite of the fact that 

 American cotton goods are admitted into 

 Cuba under a reciprocity treaty, allowing 

 them a reduction in the duty very similar 

 to that in effect in the Philippines. Under 

 this reciprocity agreement, which has been 

 in effect since 1903, the American manufac- 

 turers are given a 40 per cent preference 

 on knit goods, and 30 per cent preference 



on other manufactures of cotton, which, 

 to all intents, makes conditions, as far as 

 duty is concerned, almost identically the 

 same as in the PhiHppines, where English 

 and Japanese goods have to pay a duty 

 of 25 to 30 per cent, while American goods 

 come in free. If the Phihppine market, 

 under the new tariff law, was developed 

 from a little over half a million dollars to 

 above two milHon in a single year, there 

 is every reason to believe that the Cuban 

 market might also be dveeloped to a cor- 

 responding degree. Preference is given 

 American goods ; there is an advantage 

 geographically, and the market is a large 

 one. The largest portion of Cuban cotton 

 goods is now supplied by the United King- 

 dom, but there is no reason why the Amer- 

 ican manufacturer cannot secure a greater 

 share of this trade and of trade in other 

 foreign markets. — American Wool and 

 Cotton Reporter. Xez^' York. 



The peddler of dry goods and notions in Cuba. 



