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Trade Agreement between Canada and the Dominican Republic [1941] CATSer 1 (22 January 1941)

E103030 - CTS 1941 No. 1

TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN CANADA AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

The Government of Canada, represented by His Excellency Alexander Swinton Paterson, His Britannic Majesty’s Minister Resident at Ciudad Trujillo, and the Government of the Dominican Republic, represented by His Excellency Arturo Despradel, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, desiring further to facilitate and develop the commercial relations existing between Canada and the Dominican Republic, have resolved to conclude a Trade Agreement and for this purpose have agreed upon the following Articles:

ARTICLE I

Canada and the Dominican Republic will grant each other unconditional and unrestricted most-favoured-nation treatment in all matters concerning cus­toms duties and subsidiary charges of every kind and in the method of levying duties, and further, in all matters concerning the rules, formalities and charges imposed in connection with the clearing of goods through the customs, and with respect to all laws or regulations affecting the sale or use of imported goods within the country.

Accordingly, natural or manufactured products having their origin in either country shall in no case be subject, in regard to the matters referred to above, to any duties, taxes or charges other or higher, or to any rules or formalities other or more burdensome, than those to which the like products having their origin in any third country are or may hereafter be subject.

Similarly, natural or manufactured products exported from the territory of Canada or the Dominican Republic and consigned to the territory of the other country shall in no case be subject, with respect to exportation and in regard to the above-mentioned matters to any duties, taxes or charges other or higher, or to any rules or formalities other or more burdensome, than those to which the like products when consigned to the territory of any third country are or may hereafter be subject.

Any advantage, favour, privilege or immunity which is or may hereafter be granted by Canada or the Dominican Republic in regard to the above-mentioned matters, to a natural or manufactured product originating in any third country or consigned to the territory of any third country shall be accorded immediately and without compensation to the like product originating in or con­signed to the territory of Canada or the Dominican Republic, respectively.

ARTICLE II

Fish, pickled in brine, dry salted hake, pollock and cusk, and herrings and other smoked fish, wheat in grain and seed potatoes, the growth, produce or manufacture of Canada, shall, on their importation into the Dominican Republic, be exempt from the internal revenue taxes imposed in accordance with the provisions of Law No. 854 of March 13, 1935, and its amendments.

Moreover, with regard to seed potatoes, these shall be classified as vegetable garden seeds and, for Customs Tariff purposes, shall be appraised, free of Customs duties, under Item No. 977, of the Customs Importation and Exportation Law.

The High Contracting Parties hereby make clear that the products in this Article hereinbefore specified shall not be affected by any other Internal Revenue Tax or by any other impost of any character whatsoever which the competent authorities of the Dominican Republic may establish and which, by its nature, can be made applicable to the aforesaid products, since it is the intention of the High Contracting Parties that such products shall, during the life of the present Agreement, enjoy the same exemptions and privileges, without any alteration whatsoever, which this Agreement establishes in their favour.

ARTICLE III

Neither Canada nor the Dominican Republic shall establish any prohibition or maintain any restriction on imports from the territory of the other country which is not applied to the importation of any like article originating in any third country. Any abolition of an import prohibition or restriction which may be granted, even temporarily, by either country in favour of an article of a third country shall be applied immediately and unconditionally to the like article originating in the territory of the other country. These provisions apply, equally, to exports.

In the event of quantitative restrictions being established by either Canada or the Dominican Republic for the importation of any article, it is agreed that in the allocation of the quantity of restricted goods which may be authorized for importation, the other country will be granted a share equivalent to the proportion of the trade which it enjoyed in a representative period prior to the establishment of such quantitative restrictions.

In all matters concerning the rules, formalities or charges imposed in con­nection with any form of quantitative restriction on the importation of any article, Canada and the Dominican Republic agree to extend to each other every favour granted to a third country.

ARTICLE IV

Articles the growth, produce or manufacture of Canada or the Dominican Republic shall, after importation into the other country, be exempt from all internal taxes, fees, charges or exactions other or higher than those payable on like articles of any other foreign origin.

ARTICLE V

In the event that the Government of Canada or the Government of the Dominican Republic establish or maintain an official monopoly or centralized agency for the importation of or trade in a particular commodity, the Govern­ment establishing or maintaining such monopoly or centralized agency will give sympathetic consideration to all representations that the other Govern­ment may make with respect to alleged discriminations against its commerce in connection with purchases by such monopoly or centralized agency.

ARTICLE VI

The tariff advantages and other benefits provided for in this Agreement are granted by Canada and the Dominican Republic to each other subject to the condition that if the Government of either country shall establish or main­tain, directly or indirectly, any form of control of foreign exchange, it shall administer such control so as to insure that the nationals and commerce of the other country will be granted a fair and equitable share in the allotment of exchange.

With respect to the exchange made available for commercial transactions, it is agreed that the Government of each country shall be guided in the adminis­tration of any form of control of foreign exchange by the principle that as nearly as may be determined, the share of the total available exchange which is allotted to the other country shall not be less than the share employed in a previous representative period prior to the establishment of any exchange control for the settlement of commercial obligations to the nationals of such other country.

The Government of each country shall give sympathetic consideration to any representations which the other Government may make in respect of the application of the provisions of this Article.

ARTICLE VII

In the event that the Government of either country adopt any measure which, even though it does not conflict with the terms of this Agreement, is considered by the Government of the other country to have the effect of nullify­ing or impairing any object of the Agreement, the Government which has adopted any such measure shall consider such representations and proposals as the other Government may make with a view to effecting a mutually satis­factory adjustment of the matter.

The Government of each country will accord sympathetic consideration to, and when requested will afford adequate opportunity for consultation regard­ing, such representations as the other Government may make with respect to the operations of customs regulations, quantitative restrictions or the adminis­tration thereof, the observance of customs formalities, and the application of sanitary laws and regulations for the protection of human, animal, or plant life.

ARTICLE VIII

Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to prevent the adoption of measures prohibiting or restricting the exportation or importation of gold or silver, or to prevent the adoption of such measures as either Government may see fit with respect to the control of the export or sale for export of arms, ammunition, or implements of war, and, in exceptional circumstances, all other military supplies.

Subject to the requirement that there shall be no arbitrary discrimination by either country against the other country in favour of any third country where similar conditions prevail, the provisions of this Agreement shall not extend to prohibitions or restrictions; (1) imposed on moral or humanitarian grounds; (2) designed to protect human, animal or plant life; (3) relating to prison-made goods; (4) relating to the enforcement of police or revenue laws; (5) directed against mis-branding, adulteration, and other fraudulent practices, such as are provided for in the food and drug laws of either country; and (6) directed against unfair practices in import trade.

ARTICLE IX

The advantages now accorded or which may hereafter be accorded on the part of the Dominican Republic, to the adjacent State of Haiti and, on the part of Canada to other territories or countries under the sovereignty of His Majesty the King of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Dominions Beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, or under the suzerainty, protection or mandate of His Majesty, shall be excepted from the operation of this Agreement.

It is understood that these exceptions shall have effect so long as any such advantage, accorded by either one of the High Contracting Parties to the territories specified in this Article, be not extended to any other country or territory not exclusively enumerated above.

ARTICLE X

The advantages now established or which may hereafter be established between Canada and the United States of America, exclusively in regard to frontier traffic, and which do not relate to customs tariff advantages, shall not accrue for the benefit of the Dominican Republic. It remains understood, however, that any customs tariff advantages which Canada may accord to the United States of America shall be applicable to the Dominican Republic.

ARTICLE XI

The provisions of Article II shall be applied, provisionally, as soon as the present Agreement shall have been signed.

This Agreement shall be ratified and the instruments of ratification shall be exchanged at Ciudad Trujillo as soon as possible. The remaining Articles shall enter into force on the same date as that on which the exchange of ratifica­tions shall be effected, and thereafter the present Agreement shall have effect for a period of three years, the term fixed by the High Contracting Parties for its duration. In case neither the one nor the other High Contracting Party shall have given to the other High Contracting Party, at least six months before the expiration of the specified period of three years, notice of intention to ter­minate the Agreement, it shall remain in force after the termination of the three years, until six months from the date on which the Government of either of the two countries shall have given to the other notice of its desire to terminate it.

IN WITNESS THEREOF, the undersigned, duly authorized to that effect, have signed the present Agreement and have affixed their seals thereto.

DONE at Ciudad Trujillo this eighth day of March, nineteen hundred and forty, in duplicate in English and Spanish, both texts being equally authentic.

Alexander Swinton Paterson

Arturo Despradel