1918

©0 TKADE REGULATIONS FOE THE TONKIN FRONTIER
Every false declaration or act evidently intended to deceive the French admini¬
stration as to the quality, quantity, real origin, or real destination of merchandise
on which the special ti-eatment applicable to Chinese products traversing Tonkin in
(transit is asked, will entail the confiscation of such merchandise. In every case
where confiscation has been declared, the merchant shall be free to recover his goods
on payment of a sum equivalent to their value, which shall be duly determined by
nn^arrangement with the French authorities.
The same rules and the same transit duty will be applicable in Annam to Chinese
merchandise despatched from a Chinese port to an Annamite port in order to get to
the Chinese frontier Customs by crossing Tonkin.
Art. XIII.—The following articles, that is to say, gold and silver ingots, foreign
-money, flour, Indian meal, sago, biscuits, preserved meats and vegetables, cheese,
-butter, confectionery, foreign clothing, jewellery, plated ware, perfumery, soaps of all
kinds, charcoal, firewood, candles (foreign), tobacco, wine, beer, spirits, household
■stores, ship’s stores, personal baggage, stationery, carpeting, cutlery, drugs, foreign
medicines, and glassware, shall be verified by the Chinese Customs on their entry
and clearance; if they are really of foreign origin and intended for the personal
use of foreigners, and if they arrive in moderate quantity, a duty exemption certificate
will be given which will pass them free at the frontier. If these articles are withheld
from declaration or the formality of an exemption certificate, their clandestine intro¬
duction will render them subject to the same penalty as smuggled goods.
With the exception of gold, silver, money, and luggage, which will remain exempt
■from duty, the above-mentioned articles destined for the personal use of foreigners
and imported in moderate quantity, will pay, when they are transported into the
•interior of China a duty of 2|- per cent, on their value.
The Franco-Annamite frontier Customs shall collect no duty on the following
articles of personal use which Chinese carry with them, either on entering or leaving
■Tonkin, that is to say, money, luggage, clothes, women’s head ornaments, paper,
hair pencils, Chinese ink, furniture, or food, or on articles ordered by the Chinese
Consuls in Tonkin for their personal consumption.
Art. XIV.—The high contracting parties agree to prohibit trade in and trans¬
port of opium of whatsoever origin by the land frontier between Tonkin on the one
.side and Yunnan, Kwang-si, and Kwangtung on the other side.
Art. XV.—The export of rice and of cereals from China is forbidden. The
import of these articles shall be free of duty.
The import of the following articles into China is forbidden :—Gunpowder, pro¬
jectiles, rifles and guns, saltpetre, sulphur, lead, spelter, arms, salt, and immoral
publications.
In case of contravention these articles shall be entirely confiscated.
If the Chinese authorities have arms or munitions bought or if merchants
^receive express authority to buy them, the importation will be permitted under the
special surveillance of the Chinese Customs. The Chinese authorities may, further¬
more, by arrangement with the French Consuls, obtain for the arms and munitions
which they wish to have conveyed to China through Tonkin exemption from all the
Franco-Annamite duties.
The introduction into Tonkin of arms, munitions of war, and immoral publica¬
tions is also prohibited.
Art. XVI.—Chinese residing in Annam shall be placed under the same condi¬
tions, -vyith regard to criminal, fiscal, or other jurisdiction, as the subjects of the most
favoured nation. Law-suits which may arise in China, in the open markets on the
frontier, between Chinese subjects and Frenchmen or Annamites shall be decided in
a Mixed Court by Chinese and French officers.
With reference to crimes or offences committed by Frenchmen or persons under
French protection in China, in the places opened to trade, the procedure shall be in
.-ednformity with the stipulations of Articles XXXIII. and XXXIV. of the treatv of
the 27th June, 1858.