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Trade Agreement between Canada and Brazil [1943] CATSer 3 (16 April 1943)

E102985 - CTS 1941 No.18

TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN CANADA AND BRAZIL

The Government of Canada and the Government of the United States of Brazil, desiring to strengthen the traditional bonds of friendship which unite the two countries and to facilitate further and to develop the commercial relations existing between Canada and Brazil, have resolved to conclude a Trade Agreement and have appointed for this purpose as their Plenipoten­tiaries:

The Government of Canada, Mr. Jean Désy, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Canada in Brazil, and the Honourable James Angus MacKinnon, Minister of Trade and Commerce of Canada; and

The Government of the United States of Brazil, His Excellency Doctor Oswaldo Aranha, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Brazil;

Who, having communicated to each other their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed on the following Articles:

ARTICLE I

1. Canada and Brazil 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.

2. Accordingly, articles the growth, produce or manufacture of either country imported into the other 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 articles the growth, produce or manufacture of any other foreign country are or may hereafter be subject.

3. Similarly, articles exported from the territory of Canada or Brazil 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 articles when con­signed to the territory of any other foreign country are or may hereafter be subject.

4. Any advantage, favour, privilege or immunity which has been or may hereafter he granted by Canada or Brazil in regard to the above-mentioned matters, to any article originating in any other foreign country or consigned to the territory of any other foreign country shall be accorded immediately and without compensation to the like article originating in or consigned to the territory of Brazil or Canada, respectively, and irrespective of the nationality of the carrier.

ARTICLE II

Canada and Brazil shall grant each other reciprocally treatment not less favourable than is accorded under like circumstances and conditions to any other foreign country in all matters relating to the control of foreign exchange and of imports.

If imports of any article into either country should be regulated either as regards the total amount permitted to be imported or as regards the amount permitted to be imported at a specified rate of duty, and if shares arc allocated to countries of export, the share allocated to the other country shall be based upon the proportion of the total imports of such article from all foreign countries supplied by that country in past years, account being taken in so far as practicable in appropriate cases of any special factors which may have affected or may be affecting the trade in that article.

ARTICLE IV

If either country establishes or maintains a monopoly for the importation, production or sale of a particular commodity or grants exclusive privileges, formally or in effect, to one or more agencies to import, produce or sell a particular commodity, the Government of the country establishing or main­taining such monopoly, or granting such monopoly privileges, agrees that in respect of the foreign purchases of such monopoly or agency the commerce of the other country shall receive fair and equitable treatment. To this end it is agreed that in making its foreign purchases of any product such monopoly or agency will be influenced solely by those considerations, such as price, quality, marketability, and terms of sale, which would ordinarily be taken into account by a private commercial enterprise interested solely in purchasing such product on the most favourable terms.

ARTICLE V

Articles the growth, produce or manufacture of Canada or Brazil 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 national origin or any other origin, except as otherwise required by laws in force on the day of the signature of this Agreement.

ARTICLE VI

1. In the event that the Government of either country adopts 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.

2. The Government of each country shall accord sympathetic consideration to, and when requested shall afford adequate opportunity for consultation regarding, such representations as the other Government may make with respect to the operation of customs regulations, control of foreign exchange, 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 health or life.

1. Subject to the requirement that, under like circumstances and con­ditions, there shall be no arbitrary discrimination by either country against the other country in favour of any other foreign country, and without prejudice to the provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article VI, the provisions of this Agreement shall not extend to prohibitions or restrictions:

a) relating to public security;

b) imposed for the protection of public health or on moral or humanitarian grounds;

c) imposed for the protection of plants or animals, including measures for protection against disease, degeneration or extinction as well as measures taken against harmful seeds, plants or animals;

d) relating to prison-made goods;

e) relating to the enforcement of police or revenue laws and regulations; or

f) imposed for the protection of national treasures of artistic, historic or archaeological value.

2. Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to prevent the adoption or enforcement of such measures as the Government of either country may see fit to adopt:

a) relating to the importation or exportation of gold or silver; or

b) relating to the control of the import or export or sale for export of arms, ammunition, or implements of war, and, in exceptional circum­stances, all other military supplies.

3. It is understood that the provisions of this Agreement relating to laws and regulations affecting the sale, taxation or use of imported articles within Canada and Brazil are subject to the constitutional limitations on the authority of the Governments of the respective countries.

ARTICLE VIII

The advantages now accorded, or which may hereafter be accorded, by either country to adjacent countries in order to facilitate frontier traffic and advantages resulting from a customs union to which either country may become a party shall be excepted from the operation of this Agreement.

ARTICLE IX

The advantages now accorded, or which may hereafter be accorded, by Canada exclusively to other territories under the sovereignty of His Majesty the King of Great Britain, Ireland, and the British dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, or under His Majesty’s suzerainty, protection or mandate, shall be excepted from the operation of this Agreement. The advan­tages now accorded, or which may hereafter be accorded, by Brazil exclusively to contiguous countries shall likewise be excepted from the operation of this Agreement.

1. The present Agreement shall be ratified and the instruments of ratifi­cation shall be exchanged at Ottawa as soon as possible. The Agreement shall come into force thirty days after the exchange of ratifications and shall remain in force for a period of two years. In case neither Government shall have given to the other Government, at least six months before the expiration of the aforesaid period, notice of intention to terminate the Agreement, it shall continue in force for a further period of one year and for further successive periods of one year each, until such time as the Government of either country shall have given to the other Government, at least six months before the expiration of one of the aforesaid periods, notice of intention to terminate the Agreement.

2. Pending the definitive coming into force of this Agreement, its provisions shall be applied provisionally by the two Governments as from the date of signature of this Agreement. The Government of either country, however, may, prior to the exchange of ratifications, terminate the provisional application of the Agreement by giving three months’ notice to the other Government.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the above-mentioned Plenipotentiaries sign and seal this Agreement, in duplicate in English and Portuguese, at the City of Rio de Janeiro, this seventeenth day of October, nineteen hundred and forty-one.

Jean Désy
James A. MacKinnon
Oswaldo Aranha