NEW FRENCH TARIFF.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 80, 6 April 1910, Page 7

NEW FRENCH TARIFF.

HOW GERMANY AND BRITAIN ARE AFFECTED. ' BRITISH TEXTILES ESCAPE LIGHTLY. B? Telegraph. — trees Association.— Copyright. PARIS, sth April. The new French tariff has come into force. It invests the French Government with retaliatory powers in cases of undue discrimination by other countries. The general opinion is that Britain ha* been treated as leniently as possible. The chief feature of the tariff is the number of new classifications directed against Germany, but indirectly affecting Britain. The vexatious minuteness of the new classifications will probably be more harmful to trade than the higher duties. Thus, stee' wire, in addition to paying duty according to weight and gauge, is required to pay according to capacity for carrying electricity. British textiles escape comparatively lightly, but the increase on Sheffield goods totals £200,000 per annum. M. Ivlotz, President of the Customs Commission, declares that the tariff will put millions and millions of ■francs into the pockets of the French working classes. The National Liberal Party in the German Reichstag last month introduced a motion inviting the Government to take certain retaliatory iuea.sufes against the proposed increases in the French tariff. It is urged that whenever the revised French tariif comes into effect the clauses of the finance Bills of last year, which reduced "Customs duos upon sparkling wine, spirits, and all sorts of cosmetics, should be repealed, and the Imperial Chancellor is invited to consider in what cases higher Customs dues can De imposed upon imports from Franco if the French tariff imposes considerable disadvantages upon German exports to France.