UNITED STATES TARIFF COMMISSION Office: Eighth and E Streets NW., Washington, D. C. COMMISSIONERS THOMAS O. MARVIN, Chairman. EDGAR B. BROSSARD. SHERMAN J. LOWELL. LINCOLN DIXON. FRANK CLARK. JOHN F. BETHUNE, Secretary. ADDITIONAL COPIES OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM 60 CENTS PER COPY 2-12-1929 PREFACE The object of this tabulation is to bring together in one volume data as to the foreign trade of the United States in textile materials and textile manufactures from the beginning of the tariff act of 1890. The statistics here listed are based on those given in the annual publications of the United States Department of Commerce entitled "Foreign Commerce and Navigation of the United States." This tabulation is divided into four parts, as follows: Part 1-Imports for Consumption. Part 2-General Imports. Part 3-Exports of Domestic Merchandise. Part 4-Exports of Foreign Merchandise. In each of the four parts there are listed in consecutive order data pertaining to cotton, to vegetable fibers other than cotton, to wool and hair, and to silk and artificial silk (rayon). Tables of imports for consumption relate to goods that have been delivered into the custody of the importers after the payment of duties on the dutiable portion; they include imported articles entered for immediate consumption and imported articles withdrawn from warehouse for consumption. Tables of general imports relate to all goods, other than those in transit to a foreign country, entering the United States; they include imported articles entered at the customhouse for immediate consumption and imported articles entered for warehousing. Goods entered for warehousing are deposited in bonded warehouses under the control of customs officers; within a period of three years they must be withdrawn for consumption upon payment of the duties and charges or for exportation without payment of duties, or else be abandoned to the Government for sale. The statement of general imports and the statement of imports entered for consumption for any period will always differ to the extent that the value of entries for warehouse for the period differs from the value of withdrawals from warehouse for consumption. The kinds, quantities, and values of imported merchandise are taken for statistical purposes from the entry filed by the importer at the customhouse. The value of imported merchandise as shown in the statistical tables is therefore that which the entrant stated in his entry was the dutiable value as defined in section 402 of the tariff act of 1922. Tables of exports of domestic merchandise include not only products or manufactures of domestic origin but also products or manufactures of foreign origin which have been further manufactured in the United States. Tables of exports of foreign merchandise exhibit exports of foreign merchandise, previously imported, which were not changed in condition by further manufacture in the United States. The kinds, quantities, and values of exported merchandise are compiled from the export declaration furnished by the shipper to the collector of customs at the port of exportation. "Articles of domestic production when exported shall be valued at their actual cost, or the values which they may truly bear at the time of exportation in the ports of the United States from which they are exported." The value of foreign merchandise exported from bonded warehouse is the import value; the value of other foreign merchandise exported, comprising free goods mainly, is the same as the value of articles of domestic production. The ton as used in these tables is the long ton of 2,240 pounds. Foreign merchandise entered for immediate transit across the territory of the United States to a foreign country, or for transshipment in the ports of the United States to a foreign country, are not imports into the United States and are excluded from the tables of imports and exports here set forth. These statistics of the foreign commerce of the United States include the commerce of Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico with foreign countries, but not the trade thereof with the United States. It should be noted, on the other hand, that in the statistics of the foreign commerce of the United States the Philippine Islands are treated as a foreign country, while the collectors of customs in the islands are under the jurisdiction of the War Department. Therefore the tables here given do not include the trade of the Philippine Islands with foreign countries but do include the trade of the Philippine Islands with the United States. This fact should be noted particularly for its effect, in a limited number of instances, on the equivalent ad valorem rate of duty. For instance, paragraph 1430 of the tariff act of 1922 carries two rates of duty-one of 90 per cent ad valorem on laces, etc., and one of 75 per cent ad valorem on embroideries, etc. and the average rate of duty on articles subject to duty under paragraph 1430 must therefore be between these two rates. However, as shown in Table 1430, which includes all imports under paragraph 1430, the $43,692,562 of laces, embroideries, etc., imported in 1927 paid duty amounting to $32,067,181, equivalent to only 73.39 per cent ad valorem. The fact that the actual equivalent ad valorem rate of duty was lower than either of the rates stated in the paragraph was due in this instance to the inclusion of large amounts that entered free of duty from the Philippine Islands. The equivalent ad valorem rate of duty in certain instances is affected not only by duty-free shipments to the United States from the Philippine Islands but also in certain instances by duty-free imports for executive departments or establishments of the United States, by duty-free imports for use of foreign diplomatic officers, or by imports from Cuba that pay reduced rates of duty. In any particular instance, therefore, the equivalent ad valorem rate of duty shown in these tables may differ from the rate stated in the tariff act but in every instance it is the rate obtained by dividing the duty collected by the foreign value. In comparing the equivalent ad valorem rates of duty under the various tariff acts the fact should be borne in mind that for manufacturers of wool (other than floor coverings, and articles under the general provisions for manufactures not specially provided for) the rates shown for the acts of 1890, 1897, 1909, and 1922 include compensatory duties levied because of duties on the wool, whereas the rates shown for the acts of 1894 and 1913, when wool was on the free list, do not include any compensatory duties. In Part 1-Imports for Consumption, the numbering of the tables coincides with the numbering of the paragraphs of the tariff_act_of 1922 under which the articles have been classified since September 21, 1922. For each article so listed the imports have been traced back through the other tariff acts so as to afford a consistent chronological tabulation of the trend of such imports since the beginning of the tariff act of 1890. Where different groupings have been used, or separate records are not available for prior acts, footnotes are used to call attention to these or other pertinent facts. Where more than one article is recorded as coming under a particular paragraph, a primary table bearing the number of the paragraph is used to include all imports under that paragraph and secondary tables are used to record imports of the constituent items. For instance, "Table 916, Cotton hosiery" includes all imports, since the beginning of the act of 1890, of the character now dutiable under paragraph 916, and the. secondary tables listed as "Table 916-A, Cut cotton hosiery," and "Table 916-B, Cotton hosiery, other than cut," show the items that make up the total. Each table relating to imports for consumption shows the available data as to the quantity, the foreign value, the duty collected, the average value per unit, and the equivalent ad valorem rate of duty, for each year or fraction of a year under each tariff act. For each tariff act there are also shown for each article the totals and the annual averages, the latter being based on the year of 365 days. Since the tariff acts were of varied durations the annual averages are better than the totals in comparing imports under the different laws. For years in which a new tariff act came into effect it was usually easy, because of changed rates of duty, to identify imports under the old and under the new act. Where the articles were on the free list, or no change occurred in the rate of duty, the recorded statistics do not afford any indication as to the proportionate parts of the year's imports that entered under the old and under the new acts; in such cases the imports in the year of a new tariff act have been divided between the old and the new acts in proportion to the relative number of days of that year during which each tariff law was in effect. It has not been considered necessary to complicate the tables of imports for consumption by the insertion of separate totals and annual averages for the emergency tariff act of May 27, 1921, for that act, which expired when the act of 1922 became effective, applied to only a portion of the articles covered by the textile sections, and, where it applied to manufactures, imposed duties in addition to duties imposed in the act of 1913. Therefore, the totals and annual averages shown for the tariff act of 1913 cover the entire period from October 4, 1913, to September 21, 1922, inclusive, and for some items include imports under rates provided by the emergency tariff act. This affects especially the data for duties collected and for the equivalent ad valorem rates of duty. However, in such instances, footnotes are used to show separately the quantity, value, and duty relating to imports that were subject to provisions of the emergency tariff act. Totals and annual averages are shown for the tariff acts of 1890, 1894, 1897, 1909, and 1913 (including the emergency tariff act). There are also shown annual averages for the tariff act of 1922 for the |