§ MR. W. E. FORSTERsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, The cause of the delay of the Belgian Government in applying the new Tariff Arrangements between France and Belgium to this Country? The House was, no doubt, aware that the trade between this country and Belgium had been very much diminished by the peculiar policy of the Government of Belgium. It was not merely a protective policy in favour of their own manufactures, but a policy of preference of almost every other country over this country, and especially a preference of France. He much feared that the disadvantages of this policy would be increased in consequence of the commercial treaty between this country and France, from which, in other respects, we derived considerable advantages. On the conclusion of the commercial treaty between France and this country, negotiated by the hon. Member for Rochdale (Mr. Cobden), France offered almost the same terms to other countries, and amongst others to Belgium. The result was a commercial treaty between France and Belgium, by which French goods would be admitted to Belgium on much more favourable terms than English. That treaty was not extended to England; and the result would be that the differential duty against English goods and in favour of French goods would be very much increased. In worsted and woollen goods, with which he was best acquainted, the present duty on French goods was 22 percent; after the 1st of October it would be 15 per cent, to be reduced to 10 per cent in 1864. The duty levied on English goods of a similar description was about 35 per cent. So that while the differential duty against us was at present about 50 per cent, it would be increased to 130 per cent in October, and in 1864, if no new arrangement took place meanwhile, 804 to 350 per cent. He believed the same was the case with regard to cotton, and also with linen. The duty on French silk was 4 francs per kilogramme; after the 1st October it would be 3 francs. On English silks the duty was 11 francs 60 centimes; so that the duty on English silks was now about three times as much as on French silks, and would soon be four times as much. He could understand why the Belgians might be afraid of English woollens; but their course with regard to the admission of silks appeared to him to be an especially unfriendly action, giving as it did a large preference to French over English silks. But we laboured under a disadvantage not only in the amount of the duty but in the mode in which it was levied. One of the greatest benefits of the treaty between England and France consisted in the substitution of ad valorem for specific duties. If anybody wished for proof of the disadvantageous working of the system of specific duties he would obtain it by observing the working of the importation into Belgium. The hon. Member read a letter from Huddersfield describing the evils attendant on the levying of duties in Belgium. The Belgium tariff in English goods, the writer said, was a very complicated one, and minute specifications were required; the Custom House officer put his own construction on these, and if he considered the specification inaccurate a heavy fine was levied, one-half of which went to the Custom House officers themselves. Not only, then, had the French goods an enormous advantage in point of amount of duty. but after October of this year, they would have the great additional advantage of an ad valorem instead of a specific duty. The manufacturers did not contest the right of the Belgian Government to adopt either a protective or a differential duty; but they did not expect that Belgium, towards which this country had always showed such a friendly feeling, and who had received, he might say, so many obligations at our hands, would have placed this country at a disadvantage as compared with others. It was not to France alone, but to other countries, that preference was shown, for Belgium had a general tariff on the admission of the goods of all countries; but there were special exceptions in favour of France, Holland, Luxemburg, and the Zollverein, so that English goods almost alone remained subjected to the general tariff. The reply of the Belgian Government to the re- 805 monstrances of our Foreign Office was that they intended to remove this preference, but that they were waiting till the expiration of the special treaty with France. That special treaty expired on the 1st of March last, and, as it was understood that a new and more favourable treaty was in contemplation, the Chamber of Commerce of Bradford memorialized the Foreign Office that it would use its exertions to put our manufacturers on the same footing with France. This was in November; but the Foreign Office did not reply till January. He did not complain of this, as he had no doubt that the noble Lord was otherwise much occupied about that period; but it was matter of regret, for he had no doubt that during those two months the terms of the treaty had been arranged between Belgium and France. On the 11th of January the noble Lord directed Mr. Hammond to assure the Bradford Chamber of Commerce that the Belgian Government had given assurances that they had no intention to make the slightest distinction between the woollen mannufacturers of France and those of Great Britain, and that no concession would be made to the manufacturers of any country which was not also conceded to the manufacturers of Great Britain. Still nothing more was heard of the matter. In May the Treaty with France was completed, and a fresh memorial having been addressed to the Foreign Office, the following answer was received on the 31st of May:—
Foreign Office, May 31, 1861.Sir, in reply to your letter of the 27th instant, I am directed by Lord John Russell to acquaint you that there is no discrepancy between the letter dated the 11th of January last, which you received from Mr. Hammond, and that which I addressed to you on the 22nd instant. Her Majesty's Government had in January last received, and have lately again received, from the Belgian Government, assurances that there was no intention on their part to make any distinction between the import duties on French woollens and those on woollens the produce of Great Britain, and Her Majesty's Government are now in communication with the Belgian Government, with a view to concluding a new treaty of commerce, which shall give effect to those assurances.I am, Sir, your mostObedient humble servant,WODEHOUSE.Since that time a law had passed the Belgian Chambers sanctioning the treaty with France, but nothing whatever was said about a treaty with England. He wished now to ask the reason for this delay, and 806 he hoped that the reply he should receive would be a satisfactory one. He could hardly sit down without stating that such were and had all along been the relations between this country and Belgium that they had a right to expect the conclusion of a treaty of commerce as favourable as with any country in the world, not even excepting France. It was under the guidance of the noble Lord now at the head of the Government that the Kingdom of Belgium was established; no one knew better than he what a prominent part the British Government had taken in assisting that Government—none knew better the obligations under which this country was placed with regard to it—indeed, the noble Lord occasionally reminded them of some of which they were not before aware—and he would only say that if the Belgian Government wanted to retain the friendly feeling of this country they had better trust to a good commercial intercourse than to any parchment obligations, however strong they might be.
MR. PAGETrose to confirm the statement of his hon. Friend as to the great anxiety with which our merchants and manufacturers regarded the new treaty between Belgium and France. They felt that the French manufacturers were formidable competitors with them in ordinary circumstances, and they looked with regret, and with some degree of indignation, on a treaty which admitted the goods of their competitors at an unfair advantage.
MR. HEYGATEbegged to add a few words on behalf of his constituents, who were deeply interested in this matter, and who entirely concurred in the representations of his hon. Friend the Member for Bradford. He would not repeat all that had been urged by his hon. Friend, but the facts of the case were shortly these:—For years past the products of Great Britain had been subject to higher rates of duty on admission into Belgium than similar manufactures imported there from France and other countries. Almost every country except England enjoyed certain exemptions and privileges in Belgian tariffs, whilst England alone came in under the general tariff. Now, there was no possible reason or pretext for any such distinction. Not only were we on terms of the closest amity with Belgium, but if there was any one country more than another from whom we had a right to expect a different treatment it was from Belgium, to whom we had always afforded the advantage of our 807 friendship, and which enjoyed the blessings of a free Government and liberal institutions nearly identical with our own. Unfortunately, however, a liberal commercial policy did not in this case follow, as might have been expected, from those institutions, and so far from being admitted upon terms equal to those of the most favoured nation, our trade was marked out by them for special hostility. And if the trade with Belgium had been hitherto in a languishing state, it followed that when the new Franco-Belgian tariff came into operation on October 1, that trade would be annihilated. The duty on French woollen yarn was now 45f. per 100 kilogrammes, and would be then further reduced to 30f. to 40f.; whilst the duties on corresponding English goods remained at 116f. So, too, as regarded woollen manufactures, the present French duty on which was to be reduced from 225f. per 100 kilogrammes to a 15 per cent ad valorem duty, whilst the duty on English was 381f., equal to 37 1/2 ad valorem. England asked no privileges or special advantages, but only the opportunity of free and fair competition. It was true Lord Wodehouse had written, on May 31, that the Belgian Government assured us they had "no intention to make any difference between the import duties on French woollens and those produced in England," but, meantime, nothing was done, and they had reason to ask the cause of this delay. He would add one other reason why the Foreign Secretary should urge this matter forward as rapidly as possible—namely, that owing to the unhappy civil war now raging in America, and the restrictive tariffs adopted by the Northern States, the American trade in the midland districts was nearly annihilated; considerable distress was already the consequence, and that distress would be greatly aggravated unless some modification of the Belgian tariff should be made so soon as the new Franco-Belgian Treaty came into operation. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, too, was deeply interested in the matter, for unless something was done to save this trade he would himself be disappointed in the sanguine Estimates of Customs revenue which he had formed, and which he (Mr. Heygate) earnestly hoped might not be unequal to the results hitherto anticipated.
§ MR. NEWDEGATEwished to state that the depression in trade in the district which he represented, especially in Coventry and for eight miles round it, was 808 not in the least degree abated. The manufacturers were in great measure ruined, and the operatives were now, as a last resource, emigrating. Several of them had emigrated lately from the parish adjoining that in which he resided, and from the parish adjoining. This rendered it the more important that their manufactures should have the advantages referred to by the hon. Member for Bradford, to whom he begged to offer his thanks for having called attention to the subject.
§ LORD JOHN RUSSELLsaid, he could not altogether wonder at the complaints made with respect to the conduct of the Belgian Government. When early in the Her Majesty's Government applied to the Belgian Government they were told that they were negotiating a treaty of commerce with France, and that, until the terms of that treaty were arranged, it was not convenient to be negotiating with different Powers on the same subject at the same time. But at the same time they always assured Her Majesty's Government that whatever terms were granted with respect to French manufactures should also be conceded to English manufactures. On that assurance Her Majesty's Government relied—namely, that as soon as terms were arranged with France the Belgium Government would make the same terms with Great Britain. The negotiations between France and Belgium were considerably protracted, and it was not without difficulty that the provisions of the treaty in regard to the questions respecting woollen manufactures and other articles were carried through the Belgian Chambers. When the British Government again expressed their expectation that the same terms would be extended to this country, the Belgian Government answered that it was too late, at the end of the Session, to submit to the Belgian Chambers concessions to this country, and that without a law any concessions made by the Belgian Government would be of no value. According to that statement the Belgian Government had not chosen to introduce any Bill on the subject, and he thought that the British Government had reason to complain of that conduct. For his part he considered such conduct very unfriendly to this country; for he conceived that it might have been possible to protract the sitting of the Chambers for a fortnight or three weeks, and it appeared to him that the concession to this country of similar terms to those granted to France was what the British Govern- 809 ment had a right to expect on grounds of general policy, and seemed, after the assurances given, to be only matter of good faith. The British Government had always behaved with the greatest liberality in these subjects. For the last ten years we had effected changes in the tariff without making them matter of bargain, and when we recently concluded a commercial treaty with France we extended the same terms to all the nations of Europe. Consequently, though the Belgian Government had not granted to this country all the advantages it had a right to expect, they enjoyed themselves all the advantages resulting from the changes made in the English tariff. The British Government had again very recently remonstrated with the Belgian Government, and had asked them immediately to conclude a treaty of commerce which would place this country on an equal footing with France, and he did not think that they could fairly take any objection to that course; but he was sorry to say that, as the Belgian Chambers were not sitting, nothing could yet be definitely done on the subject.