Paris Express

WHEAT TARIFF RAISED 12 CENTS

INCREASE IN RATE OF 12 CENTS PER BUSHEL ORDERED BY PRESIDENT COOLIDGE.

RESULT OF RECENT INQUIRY

New Schedule, Effective in Thirty Days, to Aid Hard Wheat Growers of the United States—Flour Tariff of 26c Added.

Washington, D. C.—An increase of 12 cents a bushel in the tariff rate on wheat was ordered by President Coolidge. Acting under the flexible provision of the tariff commission's recent inquiry, the President at the same time ordered an increase of 26 cents a hundred pounds in the duty on wheat flour and a decrease of 50 per cent in ad valorem rate on mill feeds.

The new rate on wheat will be 42 cents a bushel, as compared with the present rate of 30 cents; the new rate on flour will be $1.04 a hundred pounds, as compared with 78 cents, and the rate on mill feeds will be 7½ per cent ad valorem, as against 15 per cent.

The new rates, as created by the President and set forth in a formal proclamation, will become effective in 30 days.

The increases will become effective in time to be applied to the flood of Canadian wheat which descends on the United States about the middle of April each year with the opening of navigation on the Great Lakes.

The advance in rates was sought to aid particularly the hard wheat growers of the Northwest, but the resultant increase in the price of spring wheat is expected to be reflected in the market quotations on winter wheat raised in the Middle Western and other states.

The proclamation setting forth the new rates was accompanied by a White House statement saying that on the basis of the record of the tariff commission's investigation the President had found:

"That the principal competing country in the case of wheat, wheat flour and mill feeds is the Dominion of Canada.

"That in the case of flour the difference in costs of production between the United States and the Dominion of Canada is 42 cents per bushel of 100 pounds.

"That in the case of flour the difference in costs of production between the United States and the Dominion of Canada is $1.04 per 100 pounds. This consists of two elements, the one an amount designed to compensate the millers for the duty for which they must pay on wheat imported into the United States and the other to cover the difference in conversion costs in the two countries.

"The difference in costs of production of mill feeds between the United States and the Dominion of Canada is $0.003 per 100 pounds."

The increase in the rate on flour also applies to semolina, crushed or cracked wheat and similar wheat products. The mill feeds classification includes bran, shorts and other by-product feeds obtained in the milling of wheat.

The new rates represent the first change in the duties of the Fordney-McCumber tariff act since it was passed by Congress in September, 1922, and the proclamation issued was the first exercise of the powers conferred on the President to increase or decrease rates within a maximum of 50 per cent after investigation by the tariff commission. Several other inquiries designed to ascertain whether existing rates are fair are under way, including an investigation of the duty on sugar.