§ COLONEL SIR HOWARD VINCENTI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade what, according to the latest official Returns in his possession, was the annual value of the goods imported into China from the United Kingdom and the British Empire; and if the duty charged upon such imports was on the scale levied by France in Indo-China, or by Russia in Eastern Siberia, or practically non-existent?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Mr. C. T. RITCHIE,) CroydonAccording to the Return of the Chinese Customs Department, the imports into China from the United Kingdom and the rest of the British Empire amounted in 1896 to nearly £27,500,000 sterling, of which more than half, or £15,000,000, were from Hong Kong. Most articles pay Customs duties at the Chinese Treaty ports at rates nearly equivalent to 5 per cent. ad valorem. The Customs duties levied on British imports into French Indo-China are, with certain exceptions, those of the French Metropolitan tariff, which are usually several times as much as the Chinese duties; and the rates on British goods entering the Russian Empire through Eastern Siberia are equally high.