Proceedings of the first Independence congress : held in the city of Manila, Philippine islands, February 22-26, 1930 / Published under the direction of Dean maximo M. Kalaw, executive secretary, University of the Philippines.

92 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

As general policies that may be followed in the revision of
our present tariff.rates pending the granting of Philippine independence and our enjoyment of full tariff autonomy, the
following are submitted:
1. Imported articles which cannot be successfully produced
in the Philippines in the supply of which the United States
has little or no participation, should be subjected to the highest
possible tariff rates with due regard to the law of diminishing returns, but due regard should be given to necessities the
duties on which should be made sufficiently low in order not
to increase unreasonably the prices of such necessities to the
detriment of the poorer classes.
2. Articles which can be grown, produced, or manufactured
in the Philippines to great advantage, and which in our home
market are subject to foreign competition but not from the
United States should be given a tariff protection equivalent to
the difference in the cost of producing such articles in the
Philippines and the cost of producing them in the foreign competing countries.
3. Articles whether competing with our products or not,
which are supplied both by the United States and foreign
countries, should be subjected to sufficiently high duties to give
reasonable protection to Philippine and American goods but
the duties should not be so high as to give the United States
a monopoly and thus raise unduly the prices to local consumers
and cause a decrease of importation from foreign countries to
the detriment of our customs revenues.
All of the speakers who participated in the discussion, including Representative Confesor and Mr. Celeste, were unanimous in their disapproval of the
present free trade relationship with the United States.
The consensus of opinion is that there should be a
gradual, instead of a sudden abolition of the present