No Likin

Government in China is a sensitive plant, dependent on the weather. In summer when the weather is warm, Chinese politicos take the field. The Nationalist government must bend all its energies to preserving its existence amid ceaseless civil war. With the first frosts the troops in the field, like the sap in the trees, are stilled. Last week rebel troops were sufficiently frostbound to allow T. V. Soong, China's able, Harvard-trained Finance Minister to promulgate a law for which he and foreign traders have been agitating for years. The likin or tariff on goods shipped from one large town to another, will be abolished Dec. 31. Small in itself, red tape and the juggling of likin rates by provincial collections to allow for "squeeze" have held up and reduced the shipment of goods, have helped stifle the development of China's interior provinces.* Lest U. S. and other foreign exporters grow too exuberant, Finance Minister Soong announced at the same time that the government must have $40,000,000 (gold) more revenue annually, that the Chinese tariff would be raised either Jan. 1 or Feb. 1. Unofficial rumors gave the new rates as: From To Wine and rolled tobacco.27.5%, 50% Automobiles 12.5 17.5 Wool, woolen goods 15. 17-5 Silk goods 22.2 22.2

Gasoline, kerosene, etc. ...12.5 change

unannounced

Under the old Chinese tariff there were five separate bureaus for collecting taxes on wine & loose tobacco, rolled tobacco, stamp, yarn, kerosene (China, unmotorized. uses far more kerosene than gasoline). The new Soong tariff may irk foreign exporters by raising all the rates, but it will vastly expedite shipments by reducing these five tax bureaus to two.

The new tariff is not to take the place of the abolished likin. Minister Soong announced last week that provincial governments will have as a substitute a new "business tax" to be levied on a sliding scale of 1/5 to 1/10 of 1% of capital invested in the respective provinces.

* France still has a form of likin in the octroi or market tax collected on goods brought into big cities. In Italy, II Ducc abolished a similar tax (dazio consumo) year ago.

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