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ANGLO-PORTUGUESE COMMERCIAL TREATY ACT 1914

ANGLO-PORTUGUESE COMMERCIAL TREATY ACT 1914 - LONG TITLE

An Act to make such provisions as are necessary to enable the
Anglo-Portuguese Commercial Treaty to come into force.
[27th November 1914]
WHEREAS His Majesty the King and the President of the Portuguese
Republic have concluded the treaty of commerce and navigation set
out in the Schedule to this Act, and by the final protocol
appended thereto, it is provided that the treaty shall not come
into force until the sanction of Parliament to article six thereof
has been obtained:

ANGLO-PORTUGUESE COMMERCIAL TREATY ACT 1914 - SECT 1
Meaning of ""port'' and ""madeira'' as applied to wine.

1. The description "port" or "madeira" applied to any wine or other
liquor, other than wine the produce of Portugal and the island of
Madeira respectively, shall be deemed to be a false trade
description within the meaning of [the Trade Descriptions Act 1968],
and that Act shall have effect accordingly:

Provided that it shall be a good defence to any proceedings under
that Act in respect of such a description as aforesaid if it is
proved

(a)that the wine or other liquor to which the description is
applied is intended solely for exportation from the United Kingdom;
...

Para.(b) rep. by SL(R) 1975

ANGLO-PORTUGUESE COMMERCIAL TREATY ACT 1914 - SECT 2
Short title.

2. This Act may be cited as the Anglo-Portuguese Commercial Treaty
Act, 1914.

There shall be between the territories of the two contracting
Parties full and complete freedom of commerce and navigation.

The subjects or citizens of each of the two contracting Parties
shall have liberty freely to come with their ships and cargoes to
all places, ports, and rivers in the territories of the other to
which native subjects or citizens are or may be permitted to come.
They shall not be subject in respect of their commerce or industry
in the territories of the other, whether their residence there is
of a permanent or temporary character, to any duties, taxes,
imposts, or licences of any kind whatever other or higher than
those which are or may be imposed upon native subjects or citizens,
and they shall enjoy the same rights, privileges, liberties,
immunities, and other favours in matters of commerce and industry as
are or may be enjoyed by native subjects or citizens.

The subjects or citizens of each of the contracting Parties shall
be exempted, in the territory of the other Party, from all personal
service in the army, navy, and national militia; from all war
charges, forced loans, military requisitions and contributions of
whatever nature. Their properties shall not be seized, sequestrated,
nor their ships, cargoes, goods, or effects retained for any public
use, unless they have been previously allowed compensation, to be
agreed upon between the interested parties on just and equitable
bases. The charges connected with the possession by any title of
landed property are excepted, as well as the obligation of military
billeting and other special requisitions or exactions for the
military forces to which all nationals or subjects or citizens of
the most favoured nation may be liable as owners, tenants, or
occupiers of real property.

The contracting Parties agree that in all matters relating to
commerce, navigation, and industry any privilege, favour, or immunity
which either contracting Party has actually granted or may hereafter
grant to the subjects or citizens or ships of any other foreign
State shall be extended immediately and unconditionally to the
subjects or citizens or ships of the other, it being their
intention that the commerce, navigation, and industry of each country
shall be placed in all respects on the footing of the most
favoured nation.

The subjects or citizens of each of the contracting Parties in the
territories of the other shall be at full liberty to acquire and
possess every description of property, movable and immovable, which
the laws of the country permit, or shall permit, the subjects or
citizens of the State to acquire and possess. They may dispose of
the same by sale, exchange, gift, marriage, testament, or in any
other manner, or acquire the same by inheritance under the same
conditions which are or shall be established with regard to subjects
or citizens of the State. They shall not be subjected in any of
the cases mentioned to any taxes, imposts, or charges of whatever
denomination other or higher than those which are or shall be
applicable to subjects or citizens of the State.

The subjects or citizens of each of the contracting Parties shall
also be permitted, on compliance with the laws of the country,
freely to export the proceeds of the sale of their property and
their goods in general without being subjected as foreigners to
other or higher duties than those to which subjects or citizens of
the country would be liable under similar circumstances.

Articles the produce and manufacture of one of the contracting
Parties imported into the territories of the other, from whatever
place arriving, shall not be subject to other or higher duties or
charges than those which are or may be levied on the like articles
the produce or manufacture of any other foreign country. In like
manner, articles the produce or manufacture of one of the
contracting Parties exported to the territories of the other shall
not be subjected to other or higher duties or charges than those
which are or may be levied on the like articles exported to any
other foreign country. The contracting Parties also reciprocally
undertake that no more favourable treatment shall be extended to the
goods of any other foreign country in respect of importation, import
duties, exportation, export duties, re-exportation, re-export duties,
customs facilities, warehousing, transhipment, drawbacks, and commerce
and navigation in general.

His Britannic Majesty's Government engage to recommend to Parliament
to prohibit the importation into and sale for consumption in the
United Kingdom of any wine or other liquor to which the description
"Port" or "Madeira" is applied, other than wine the produce of
Portugal and of the island of Madeira respectively.

No prohibition or restriction shall be maintained or imposed on the
importation of any article the produce or manufacture of either of
the contracting Parties into the territories of the other, from
whatever place arriving, which shall not equally extend to the
importation of the like articles being the produce or manufacture of
any other foreign country. The only exceptions to this general rule
shall be in the case of the sanitary or other prohibitions
occasioned by the necessity of securing the safety of persons or of
cattle or of plants useful for agriculture, and of the measures
applicable in either of the two countries to articles enjoying a
direct or indirect bounty in the other.

Nor shall any prohibition or restriction be maintained or imposed on
the exportation of any article from the territories of either of
the two contracting Parties to the territories of the other which
shall not equally extend to the exportation of the like articles to
any other foreign country.

Merchandise of all kinds the produce or manufacture of one of the
contracting Parties passing in transit through the territories of the
other shall be reciprocally free from all transit duties, whether
they pass direct or whether during transit they are unloaded,
warehoused, and reloaded, and no prohibition or restriction shall be
maintained or imposed on the transit of such merchandise which shall
not equally extend to the transit of the like articles the produce
or manufacture of any other foreign country.

Goods of all kinds, the produce or manufacture of one of the
contracting Parties, imported into the territories of the other,
shall not be subject to excise, octroi, or consumption dues, levied
on account of the State or of the municipalities, higher than those
payable on similar articles of native origin.

The stipulations of the present treaty with regard to the mutual
accord of the treatment of the most favoured nation apply
unconditionally to the treatment of commercial travellers and their
samples. The Chambers of Commerce, as well as other trade
associations and other recognised commercial associations in the
contracting States as may be authorised in this behalf shall be
mutually accepted as competent authorities for issuing any
certificates that may be required for commercial travellers.

Articles imported by commercial travellers as samples shall, in each
country, be temporarily admitted free of duty on compliance with the
customs regulations and formalities established to assure their
re-exportation or the payment of the prescribed customs duties if
not re-exported within the period allowed by law. But the foregoing
privilege shall not extend to articles which, owing to their
quantity or value, cannot be considered as samples, or which, owing
to their nature, could not be identified, upon re-exportation.

In order to facilitate the clearance of samples of goods brought by
commercial travellers of one of the two States into the territories
of the other to be used as samples or patterns for the purpose of
obtaining orders and not for sale, the marks, stamps, or seals
affixed by the Customs authorities of one country to commercial
samples at the time of exportation, and the list of such samples
drawn up in proper form and certified by the competent authority,
such list containing an exact description of the samples, shall form
sufficient evidence, so far as the respective customs authorities are
concerned, of their nature, and shall entitle them to exemption from
all customs examination except in so far as may be necessary to
establish that the samples produced are identical with those
enumerated in the list. The customs authorities of either country
are, however, at liberty to affix a supplementary mark to such
samples, should this precaution in particular cases be considered
necessary.

Each of the contracting Parties shall permit the importation or
exportation on the vessels of the other of all merchandise which
may be legally imported or exported, and also the carriage of
passengers from or to their respective territories on the vessels of
the other; and such vessels and their cargoes and passengers shall
enjoy the same privileges, and shall not be subjected to any other
or higher duties or charges than the vessels, cargoes, and
passengers of the most favoured nation.

Notwithstanding anything in this treaty either of the contracting
Parties reserves the right to confine to national vessels the trade
between any ports within its territories. In the event of this
right being exercised by either country, nothing in this treaty
shall be construed as entitling the vessels of that country to
participate in the corresponding trade between ports of the other
country.

British and Portuguese vessels may nevertheless proceed from one port
to another, either for the purpose of landing the whole or part of
their passengers or cargoes brought from abroad, or of taking on
board the whole or part of their passengers or cargoes for a
foreign destination.

It is also understood that no vessel shall be considered as
engaging in trade between two ports of one of the contracting
States merely because it carries between those ports passengers
holding through tickets or merchandise consigned on through bill of
lading to or from some place outside the territories of that State.

No duties of tonnage, harbour, pilotage, lighthouse, quarantine, or
other analogous duties of whatever nature, or under whatever
denomination, levied in the name or for the profit of the
Government, private individuals, corporations, or establishments of any
kind, shall be imposed in the ports of the territories of either
of the contracting Parties upon the vessels of the other or on
their cargoes in lieu of on the vessels which shall not equally
and under the same conditions be imposed in the like cases on
vessels of the most favoured nation in general. Such equality of
treatment shall apply to the respective vessels, from whatever port
or place they may arrive, and whatever may be their destination.

In all that regards the stationing, loading, and unloading of
vessels in ports, docks, roadsteads, and harbours every privilege
granted by either of the contracting Parties to the vessels of any
third country shall be extended immediately and unconditionally to
the vessels of the other contracting Party.

Any vessel of either of the contracting Parties which may be
compelled by stress of weather or by accident, to take shelter in
a port of the other, shall be at liberty to refit therein, to
procure all necessary stores, and to put to sea again, without
paying any dues other than such as would be payable in a similar
case by a national vessel. In case, however, the master of a
merchant vessel should be under the necessity of disposing of a
part of his merchandise in order to defray his expenses, he shall
be bound to conform to the regulations and tariffs of the place to
which he may have come.

If any vessel of one of the contracting Parties should run aground
or be wrecked upon the coasts of the other, such vessel, and all
parts thereof, and all furniture and appurtenances belonging
thereunto, and all goods and merchandise saved therefrom, including
any which may have been cast into the sea, or the proceeds thereof
if sold, as well as all papers found on board such stranded or
wrecked vessel shall be given up to the owners or their agents
when claimed by them. If there are no such owners or agents on
the spot, then the same shall be delivered to the British or
Portuguese consular officer in whose district the wreck or stranding
may have taken place, upon being claimed by him within the period
fixed by the laws of the country, and such consular officer,
owners, or agents shall pay only the expenses incurred in the
preservation of the property, together with the salvage or other
expenses which would have been payable in the like case of a wreck
of a national vessel.

The contracting Parties agree, moreover, that merchandise saved shall
not be subjected to the payment of any Customs duty unless cleared
for internal consumption.

In the case either of a vessel being driven in by stress of
weather, run aground, or wrecked, the respective consular officers
shall, if the owner or master or other agent of the owner is not
present, or is present and requires it, be authorised to interpose
in order to afford the necessary assistance to their
fellow-countrymen.

All vessels which, according to British law, are to be deemed
British vessels, and all vessels which, according to Portuguese law,
are to be deemed Portuguese vessels, shall, for the purposes of
this treaty, be deemed British or Portuguese vessels respectively.

Limited liability and other companies and associations, commercial,
industrial, and financial, already or hereafter to be organised in
accordance with the laws of either contracting Party and registered
in the territories of such Party, are authorised in the territories
of the other to exercise their rights and appear in the Courts
either as plaintiffs or defendants, subject to the laws of such
other Party.

It shall be free to each of the high contracting Parties to
appoint consuls-general, consuls, vice-consuls, and consular agents to
reside in the towns and ports of the territories of the other.
Such consuls-general, consuls, vice-consuls, and consular agents,
however, shall not enter upon their functions until after they shall
have been approved and admitted in the usual form by the Government
to which they are sent.

The consuls and consular agents of each of the contracting Parties,
residing in the territories of the other, shall receive from the
local authorities such assistance as can by law be given to them
for the recovery of deserters from the vessels of their respective
countries.

Provided that this stipulation shall not apply to subjects or
citizens of the State in whose territory the desertion takes place.

The subjects or citizens of each of the high contracting Parties
shall have, in the territories of the other, the same rights as
subjects or citizens of that State in regard to patents for
inventions, trade-marks, and designs, upon fulfilment of the
formalities prescribed by law.

The present treaty shall extend, as regards Portugal, to the mother
country and adjacent islands (Madeira, Porto Santo, and Azores), but
shall not extend to any of the dominions, colonies, possessions, or
protectorates of either contracting Party unless notice of the desire
of such contracting Party that the treaty shall apply to any such
dominion, colony, possession, or protectorate shall have been given
to the other contracting Party before the expiration of one year
from the date of the exchange of the ratifications of the present
treaty.

Nevertheless, the goods produced or manufactured in any of His
Britannic Majesty's dominions, colonies, possessions and protectorates
shall enjoy in Portugal complete and unconditional most-favoured-nation
treatment so long as such dominion, colony, possession, or
protectorate shall accord to goods the produce or manufacture of
Portugal treatment as favourable as it gives to the produce or
manufacture of any other foreign country; and reciprocally the goods
produced or manufactured in any Portuguese colony or possession shall
enjoy like most-favoured-nation treatment in the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland so long as such colony or possession
shall accord to goods the produce or manufacture of the United
Kingdom treatment as favourable as it gives to the produce or
manufacture of any other foreign country.

Colonial goods re-exported from the mother country of one of the
contracting Parties shall be treated in the territory of the other
as proceeding from that mother country, and shall therefore be
exempt from supertaxes on indirect trade which may eventually be
established.

Any controversy which may arise between the contracting Parties
regarding the interpretation or application of the present treaty, as
well as the rates of the conventional tariffs agreed upon between
the contracting Parties and third States, shall, on the demand of
one or other of the contracting Parties, be adjusted by means of
arbitration.

A court of arbitration shall in each case be constituted in the
following manner:

1.Each of the contracting Parties shall name an arbitrator from
among the competent subjects or citizens of the country.

2.The two contracting Parties shall then choose a subject of a
third country to act as umpire.

3.In the event of no agreement being reached as to the umpire,
each of the contracting Parties shall name a candidate of different
nationality from those of the persons proposed under the preceding
paragraph. The selection of one of the two candidates so nominated
for the office of umpire shall be decided by lot, unless the two
contracting Parties shall come to an agreement on the subject. The
umpire shall preside at the Court of Arbitration, which shall decide
by a majority of votes. On the first occasion of arbitration the
Court shall sit in the territory of the country decided by lot; in
the second case it shall sit in the territory of the other
country; and subsequently alternately in the territory of the two
contracting Parties in a place selected by the Government of the
country where the Court is to meet. The necessary officers and
staff shall be provided for the Court by the Government of the
country in which it meets. Each of the contracting Parties shall be
represented before the Court by one or more agents, who may be
assisted by lawyers.

The proceedings shall be solely in writing, but nevertheless the
Court shall be entitled to require verbal explanations from the
agents of the two parties and to hear experts and witnesses if
they shall deem such a course advisable. The costs of the
arbitration shall be divided equally between the two contracting
Parties.

The present treaty shall be ratified and the ratifications shall be
exchanged at Lisbon as soon as possible. It shall come into force
fifteen days after the exchange of ratifications, and shall remain
binding for a period of ten years. In case neither of the
contracting Parties shall have given notice to the other twelve
months before the date of expiration of this period of their
intention to terminate it, it shall remain in force until the
expiration of one year from the day on which either of the
contracting Parties shall have denounced it.

As regards, however, the dominions, colonies, possessions, and
protectorates which may have adhered to the present treaty in virtue
of Article 21, either of the contracting Parties shall have the
right to terminate it separately at any time on giving twelve
months' notice to that effect.

It is understood that the stipulations of the present and of the
preceding article referring to British dominions, colonies,
possessions, or protectorates apply also to the island of Cyprus.

On proceeding to sign the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation
concluded this day between the United Kingdom and Portugal, the
undersigned plenipotentiaries have made the following reservations and
declarations which shall form an integral part of the treaty:

It is understood that the provisions of Article 17 do not affect
the right of either contracting Party to require, by their internal
legislation, the prior consent of the competent local authorities
before foreign companies or associations can institute local branches
or agencies for the carrying out of banking or assurance operations.

It is understood that the provisions of this treaty, which secure
in Portugal most-favoured-nation treatment to British goods and
vessels shall not apply to the special favours which Portugal
accords, or may hereafter accord, to the goods or vessels of Spain
or Brazil.

It is understood that this treaty shall not come into force until
the sanction of the British Parliament for Article 6 has been
obtained.

The present protocol, which shall be considered as approved and
sanctioned by the contracting Parties, without any other special
ratification, by the sole fact of the exchange of the ratifications
of the Treaty to which it appertains, has been drawn up in
duplicate at Lisbon, the 12th August, 1914.

The plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty on signing the treaty
declares that the concession by His Majesty's Government in Article
6 is made only in return for improvement in the Customs treatment
of British goods by the Portuguese Government, and without prejudice
to the views of the two contracting Parties as to the proper
interpretation to be placed on Article 4 of the Madrid Convention
of the 14th April, 1891.