120 CIRCULAR 249, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Cigar tobacco brought into this country is classified for customs 
purposes as “‘leaf suitable for cigar wrappers,” and “‘other cigar leaf.’’ 
As will be noted from table 38, practically all the wrapper tobacco 
is imported from the Netherlands, being the product of the Dutch 
possessions, Sumatra and Java. Other cigar leaf is primarily of 
filler types, though it contains some tobacco of wrapper quality. 
Imports of tobacco are shown in tables 38 and 39. It is important 
to note that in these tables the tobacco is credited to the country 
from which the shipments were made, and that some of the tobacco 
so credited was produced elsewhere. For example, the tobacco shown 
as imported from the Netherlands was produced in the Netherlands 
Indies—Sumatra and Java. That credited to Germany and Italy 
was produced in southeastern Europe and Asia Minor. Tobacco is 
recorded as imported only when withdrawn from customs bonded 
warehouses and duty-paid. To illustrate, table 38 shows 18,982,000 
pounds of cigarette leaf imported from Greece in 1938. This means 
that during 1938 that quantity of tobacco from Greece was duty-paid 
and withdrawn from United States customs bonded warehouses. 
The actual shipments from Greece during that year may have been 
either greater or less than the quantity withdrawn. 
Customs bonded warehouses of the class referred to are privately 
owned buildings for the storage of imported merchandise that has been 
released from customs custody before payment of duty. The owners 
or operators of customs bonded warehouses are under bond to insure 
the Government against loss or expense in connection with the goods 
stored. Goods may be withdrawn from such storage for consumption 
by payment of the duties and accrued charges thereon. Tobacco 
coming into this country from any foreign country immediately 
enters into the custody of the Bureau of Customs. From there, if 
payment of duty is deferred, it is transferred to a customs bonded 
warehouse where it is under the custody of a customs employee known 
as a storekeeper. The customs bonded warehouse may be located at 
the point of entry or at an interior point. It may be a building or 
part of a building of a manufacturer to whom the tobacco was con- 
signed. | 
The tendency is to withdraw the tobacco only as needed rather than 
to incur interest charges on the money necessary to pay the duty 
on tobacco not immediately required for manufacturing. Statistics 
on imports of tobacco therefore merely tend to reflect the rate of 
annual consumption. They are not, however, an accurate measure 
for the reason that if a manufacturer finds it cheaper or otherwise more 
advantageous to pay the duty at once, he may withdraw in excess 
of his needs for the current year. Also, if the importer is a dealer 
instead of a manufacturer, he may take possession of the tobacco 
for trading purposes long before it passes into the hands of manu- 
facturers and into consumption. 
Table 40 shows reexports of tobacco and tobacco products, repre- 
senting tobacco held or manufactured in customs bonded warehouses, 
but which reentered foreign trade instead of domestic consumption, 
and therefore escaped payment of duty. The quantities of tobacco 
represented by reexports are not included in imports and therefore 
are not deductible therefrom. 
