UNITED STATES TARIFF COMMISSION UNDEVELOPED NEGATIVE MOTION-PICTURE FILM OF AMERICAN MANUFACTURE Comment The undeveloped negative motion-picture film of American manufacture exposed abroad for newsreels covered by this summary consists only of negative film on which news events are originally photographed in a motion-picture camera. This summary does not include duplicate negatives, imports of which greatly exceed the imports of negatives on which news events were originally photographed. 1/ American newsreel companies maintain their own crews in nearly all the news centers of the world and in some of the larger countries also maintain their own processing facilities in which positive prints for foreign exhibition are prepared. For domestic exhibition of foreign material most of the editing, adding of commentary, and printing of positive prints is done in the United States. United States imports of undeveloped negative motion-picture film of American manufacture exposed abroad for newsreels averaged about 303,000 linear feet annually, valued at $13,000, in the immediate prewar years. Because of wartime regulations imports declined sharply during the war, but have since been resumed, although on a smaller scale. In 1948 they amounted to 171,000 linear feet, valued at close to $8,000. France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and China, were the principal prewar sources of imports; since the war imports have come largely from France, Palestine, and Austria. For duty purposes all duplicate negatives are administratively classified as positives under par. 1551 because of the language of that par. which reads "photographic-film positives, imported in any form, for use in any way in connection with moving-picture exhibits, including herein all moving, motion, motophotography, or cinematography film pictures, prints, positives, or duplicates of every kind and nature, and of whatever substance made ..." (underline supplied). See separate summary on motion-picture film exposed or exposed and developed under par. 1551. SUMMARIES OF TARIFF INFORMATION BABASSU NUTS AND KERNELS Tariff Status Far. 1727. Babassu nuts and kernels were free of duty under the Tariff Act of 1922 and are also free of duty under the Tariff Act of 1930, as seeds and nuts, n.s.f.f., when the oils derived therefrom are free of duty. Their duty-free status was bound in the Trade Agreement with Brazil, effective January 1936, and in the Geneva Agreement. Babassu oil is not subject to processing tax. Trade Statistics Table 1.- Babassu nuts and kernels: 1 United States imports for 1/ All imports are of kernels, except for 33,000 pounds of nuts, valued at $451, in 1943. 2/ All from Brazil. 3/ Preliminary. Source: Official statistics of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Note. Babassu nuts are not grown in the United States. Comment The babassu nut is the product of an oil palm tree, Orbigyna oleifera, which grows wild in large areas in Brazil. The nut has a very thick, hard shell surrounding the 3 to 6 elongated kernels, each of which occupies a separate compartment. Ordinarily only the kernels, which constitute by weight about 9 percent of the nut, enter international trade. The oil yield of the kernels is about 63 percent of their weight. Babassu oil is a lauric-acid oil (see separate summary, par. 1732) similar in characteristics and uses to coconut and palm kernel oil. The United States produces no babassu nuts, but imports the kernels from Brazil, the only producer of consequence. The potential supply of babassu nuts in Brazil is very large but so far it has not been exploited extensively. Current production of the kernels is officially estimated at 154 million pounds a year, compared with an average of 92 million pounds in 1935-39, and the peak production of 160 million pounds (in 1941). 1/ The collection of babassu nuts has been limited by the remoteness and inaccessibility of the babassu forests, the lack of an adequate labor supply, and the difficulty of cracking the nuts and removing the oil-bearing kernels. Mechanical devices for cracking the nuts have been tried, but so far without pronounced success. By contrast, the quantity of copra (including coconut oil in terms of corra) entering world trade in 1935-39 was more than 4,000 million pounds. UNITED STATES TARIFF COMMISSION BABASSU NUTS AND KERNELS United States imports of babassu kernels (virtually no nuts in the shell have been imported) on a commercial scale began in 1935 and this country has been the principal importer since that time. During 1936-38 United States imports averaged 55 million pounds annually but in 1939 they amounted to 114 million pounds (see table 1). During World War II, owing to the shortage of lauric-acid oil, the United States Government attempted to increase the imports of babassu kernels from Brazil. The United States negotiated purchase agreements with that country, and made loans the proceeds of which were to be used to facilitate collecting, transporting, and cracking of babassu nuts. These efforts, however, failed to increase the imports of kernels, which ranged during the war from 15 million pounds in 1944 to 73 million pounds in 1945. Imports amounted to 22 million pounds, valued at 1.4 million dollars (foreign value), in 1947 and to 62 million pounds, valued at 7.2 million dollars, in 1948. Par. 1727. Tung nuts were free of duty under the Tariff Act of 1922 and are free of duty also under the Tariff Act of 1930. Comment Tung nuts, the seeds of two species of deciduous tropical or subtropical trees, Aleurites fordii, and A. montana, native to China, are the source of tung oil (known also as wood oil), one of the best drying and waterproofing oils known (see separate summary, par. 1732). The whole fruits are 2 to 24 inches in diameter and consist of an outer pericarp or hull enclosing 3 to 5 nuts. The nuts have a thin shell. The yield of oil from the kernels is about 16 percent of the weight of the mature unhulled air-dry fruits. Formerly China was the sole source of the world's tung oil. Tung trees were introduced into southern United States early in the present century, and planting on a commercial scale began about 1924. As a result of failures in early plantings caused by lack of experience, and of the demand for the nuts for plantings, tung oil from domestic nuts did not appear on the market until 1932, and then only in insignificant quantities. Within recent years, however, domestic production of the nuts and oil has become substantial. The output of nuts increased from 27,000 short tons in 1944 to 67,000 in 1948. The production of oil in the 1948-49 season was 16,831,000 pounds. Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida are the principal producing States. The Tung oil is produced in the regions where the nuts are grown. relatively small quantities of tung muts which enter international trade ordinarily are for planting. There were no imports of the nuts into the United States during 1942-48, but imports in the spring of 1949 amounted to 2.4 million pounds, valued at $105,000. The indications are that these muts will be crushed for oil. United States imports of tung oil averaged about 100 million pounds annually before World War II, and about 125 million pounds during 1947 and 1948. SUMMARIES OF TARIFF INFORMATION COPRA Tariff Status Par. 1727. Copra was free of duty under the Tariff Act of 1922 and is free of duty also under the Tariff Act of 1930. 1 Its duty-free status was bound in the trade agreement with the United Kingdom, effective January 1939, and in the Geneva agreement. Under section 2470 of the Internal Revenue Code, as amended, a processing tax is imposed on the "first domestic processing" of coconut oil in the United States; this tax was first imposed in 1934. Since coconut oil is produced in the United States from imported copra, the tax is in effect a tax on such copra based on the oil yield thereof. As the oil yield of copra is about 63 percent, the tax of 3 cents per pound of oil from Philippine copra is equivalent to 1.9 cents per pound of copra-equivalent to 15.4 percent ad valorem based on the average value of copra imports in 1948. The tax was much higher in ad valorem equivalent before the war. (See "Comment" for further details.) UNITED STATES TARIFF COMMISSION COPRA Trade Statistics Table 1.- Copra: United States imports for consumption, by principal 1/ Includes 121,872 thousand pounds, valued at 4,232 thousand dollars, from Ceylon, and 39,656 thousand pounds, valued at 1,349 thousand dollars, from French Oceania. 2/ Preliminary. 3/ Calculated on the exact (i.e., unrounded) figures. Source: Official statistics of the U. S. Department of Commerce. |