Decree No. 31 / 1949 Coll.
Decree on the Trade and Navigation Treaty between the Czechoslovak Republic and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, signed in Moscow on 11 December 1947
Valid
Effective from 15.06.1948
31.
Decree of the Minister for Foreign Affairs
of 20 January 1949
on the Trade and Navigation Treaty between the Republic of Czechoslovakia and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, signed in Moscow on 11 December 1947.
A Trade and Navigation Treaty was negotiated between the Czechoslovak Republic and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in Moscow on 11 December 1947. It was approved by the National Assembly on 4 February 1948 and was ratified by the President of the Republic on 8 April 1948.
The instruments of ratification were exchanged in Prague on 15 June 1948, the date on which the contract became effective under Article 19 thereof. The trade and navigation contract between the Czechoslovak Republic and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of 25 March 1935, No. 61 Coll.
The text of this Treaty and its Annexes are hereby published in the Annex to the Collection of Laws. *)
Dr Clementis v. r.
Annex
Contract
on trade and navigation between the Republic of Czechoslovakia and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
On behalf of the Czechoslovak Republic!
On behalf of the Czechoslovak Republic and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, this Agreement with the Annex was negotiated
TREATY
on trade and navigation between the Republic of Czechoslovakia and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The President of the Czechoslovak Republic and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics led by the wish to contribute to the further development and consolidation of economic relations between the two states in agreement with the provisions of the Treaty on Friendship, Mutual Assistance and Post-War Cooperation between the Czechoslovak Republic and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of 12 December 1943 agreed to conclude the Trade and Navigation Treaty and appointed for that purpose their members:
President of the Czechoslovak Republic:
Mr Dr Hubert RIPKU, Minister of Foreign Trade of the Czechoslovak Republic,
and Mr Dr Jiří HORÁK, Ambassador of the Czechoslovak Republic to the USSR,
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Union of Soviet Socialist Republics:
Mr Anastas Ivanovich MIKOJAN, Minister of Foreign Trade of the SSR,
Those who exchanged their powers of attorney, whom they found in good and proper form, agreed on this.
The Contracting Parties shall grant each other the treatment of each other in accordance with the principle of most favourable treatment in all matters relating to mutual economic relations.
In particular, the Czechoslovak and Soviet Socialist Republics will provide each other with the highest benefits on all issues relating to customs duties and any benefits and taxes, interpretation of customs duties, method of collection of customs duties, classification of goods, refund of customs duties, re-export, transhipment and placing of goods in warehouses, rules, formalities and charges associated with clearance of goods in customs warehouses.
In no case shall the land crops and industrial products originating in or coming from the territory of one of the Contracting Parties be subject, on importation into the territory of the other Party, to duties, taxes and levies or to other or more burdensome rules or formalities than those to which similar land crops and industrial products of any other State are or will be subject.
In any case, the land-based crops and industrial products of one of the Contracting Parties shall in no case be subject to other or higher duties, taxes and levies or other or more burdensome rules or formalities than those to which similar land-based crops and industrial products exported in the territory of any third State are or will be subject.
Any advantage, relief, privilege or relief granted or later granted by the Czechoslovak Republic or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to land crops and industrial products originating in any third State or intended for export to any third State shall be granted immediately and without refund to similar crops and products originating in or consigned from the territory of the other Contracting Party or intended for export to the territory of the other Contracting Parties.
No Contracting Party shall apply any restrictions or prohibitions to imports from the territory of the other Party or to exports into the territory of that Party unless they are used against all other States, excluding restrictions and prohibitions applying without distinction to all States under the same conditions, in relation to public policy and national security, protection of public health, protection of animals or plants from diseases, harmful insects and alien insects and plant protection against degeneration. In any event, each Contracting Party shall take account of the interest of the other Party in setting restrictions and prohibitions on the import and export of goods.
Earth crops and industrial products of one of the Contracting Parties which are transported through the territory of one or more third States shall not be subject, on importation into the territory of the other Party, to duties or levies higher than those which they would be subject to if they were imported directly from their State of origin.
These provisions shall also apply to goods which have been transhipped, changed or stored in storage during transport.
Under the conditions laid down for entry into the customs territory of the two Contracting Parties, the following shall be exempt from customs duties and levies on import and export:
(a) articles intended for experiments and tests, models and samples of goods;
(b) machinery and machine parts imported for testing;
(c) Goods intended for exhibitions, competitions and fairs;
(d) Fitter tools which are imported or exported by themselves or sent to them before or after they have crossed the border;
(e) agricultural crops and industrial products imported for processing or repair to be re-exported after processing or repair;
(f) Known external packaging, imported for filling as well as packaging intended for import articles which are to be re-exported after the specified period;
(g) Ships moving with their accessories loaded or empty even if, at any point, they accept other cargo for their return journey, provided that they are not used for their temporary stay in the territory of the other Contracting Party for inland transport.
Inner benefits collected on behalf of anyone who burdensome or burdensome the production, processing, circulation or consumption of any goods in the territory of one of the Contracting Parties shall under no circumstances affect the goods of the other Contracting Party more or more burdensome than domestic goods of the same kind, or if there is no similar domestic goods than goods of the State of the most favoured nation.
The most favourable treatment for entry, departure and stay in, loading and unloading shall be granted to each of the Contracting Parties' ships, their crews, passengers and costs in the ports of the other Party; benefits and taxes of any kind collected for the benefit of the State, municipalities or other offices or organisations; as regards the landing of ships, providing them with loading and unloading points in ports and berths, fuel, lubricants, water and food measures; repair, use of pilot services, use of canals, sluices, bridges, signals and fires used to indicate navigable waters, use of lifting cranes, scales, berths, warehouses, shipyards, dry docks and landmarks, as well as the application of rules and formalities, including health and carantage formalities and anything related to navigation.
All the advantages and benefits, privileges and concessions that will be provided in this respect by one of the Contracting Parties to a third State, will be extended to the other without delay and without payment.
The provisions of this Article shall not apply to:
(a) to perform port services, including pilot and towing;
(b) for coastal navigation; the voyage of ships from one port of the other shall not be considered as short-sea voyages from each of the Contracting Parties to another port of the other for the purpose of unloading all or part of the cargo carried abroad or for the purpose of loading all or part of the cargo destined for foreign states.
If the ship of one of the Contracting Parties is in distress or is shipwrecked at the shore of the other Party, the ship and cargo shall enjoy the advantages and benefits of the legislation and rules of that Party in similar cases to those of the State enjoying the most advantages. Commander, crew and passenger as well as ship itself and its cargo will be provided at any time necessary assistance and support as domestic ships. It is agreed that objects saved from a ship that are in distress or failed will not be subject to any customs duties unless the items are intended to be consumed within the state.
The nationality of the ships of the two Contracting Parties shall be mutually recognised on the basis of the cards and documents on the ship and issued by the competent authorities in accordance with the laws and regulations of the Contracting Party whose flag the ship is flying.
Exchange certificates and other technical instruments issued or recognised by either Party shall be recognised by the other Party.
In agreement with this, the merchant ships of each of the Contracting Parties, provided by the law issued by the bills of measurement, will be exempt from the re-measurement in the ports of the other Party and the net space of the ship, indicated in the sheet, will be taken as the basis for calculating the port benefits.
For the carriage of goods, passengers and baggage by inland railways, roads and waterways, both Contracting Parties shall grant each other treatment on the basis of the most favourable principle in all matters with regard to the acceptance of goods for transport, the means of transport and freight for transport, as well as charges relating to the carriage of goods of the same kind in the same direction and on the same length of the line.
The provisions of the Convention concluded between the railway authorities of the two Contracting Parties shall apply to the carriage of goods, passengers and baggage between the two Contracting Parties.
The Contracting Parties shall grant each other the right to a free transit of passengers, baggage and goods within their territory under the same conditions as the transit is granted to other countries.
Since foreign trade is a state monopoly under the laws of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the Czechoslovak Republic will have its commercial representative whose legal status is determined by the provisions of the Annex to this Treaty, which forms an integral part of it.
Czechoslovak legal and physical persons will enjoy these benefits as regards their persons and assets as most favoured legal and physical persons in carrying out their commercial, industrial and any other economic activities on the territory of the Soviet Socialist Republic, under the conditions under which such activities are permitted by the legislation of the Soviet Socialist Republic.
Soviet economic organisations and other legal entities, as well as Soviet citizens, will enjoy the same benefits as those enjoyed by legal and physical persons of the State enjoying the most advantages in the operation of trade, industry and all other economic activities in the Czechoslovak Republic under the conditions under which this activity is permitted by the Czechoslovak Republic legislation.
The physical and legal persons of each of the Contracting Parties may sue in court and shall have free access to the court of the other Party. In any event, they will enjoy the advantages enjoyed by the most favoured state physical and legal persons.
The Contracting Parties undertake to implement arbitration rulings in disputes which may arise from business closures negotiated by their citizens, organisations or constitution, provided that the decision of the dispute has been specifically foreseen for that purpose by the competent arbitration panel established or still in the conclusion itself or in a special agreement adapted to the conclusion in question. The implementation of an arbitral ruling delivered in agreement with the above mentioned in this Article may be refused only in the following cases:
(a) If the arbitration ruling has not, under the law of the State in which it was delivered, acquired the nature of the final final final final decision;
(b) Where an arbitration ruling obliges a party to a transaction which is inadmissible under the laws of the State in which the decision is requested;
(c) Where the arbitration panel is contrary to the public policy of the State in which the decision is requested.
The decision to implement, as well as the actual implementation of arbitration statements, will take place in agreement with the legislature of the Contracting Party implementing the opinion.
The provisions of this Treaty shall not apply to rights and privileges which are or will be granted by each Contracting Party in order to facilitate border contact with neighbouring States in a zone not exceeding 15 km from each side of the border.
The Parties shall encourage the exchange of technical experience between the two States through the transmission of experts, the organisation of industrial, economic and other exhibitions and other means.
The Parties shall negotiate as soon as possible the conclusion of agreements on settlement and protection of literary and artistic property issues.
The Trade and Navigation Treaty between the Republic of Czechoslovakia and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, concluded on 25 March 1935, will expire on the date of entry into force of this Treaty.
This Treaty will be ratified and will become effective on the date of the exchange of instruments of ratification, which will be implemented within the shortest time limit in Prague.
The term of validity of this Treaty shall not be determined, but shall cease to apply for one year from the date of written notice of one of the Contracting Parties.
Written in Moscow, on 11 December 1947 in two original copies, each in the Czech and Russian languages, the two texts being equally authentic.
On the conscience of the two Contracting Parties, this agreement was signed and their seals attached to it.
Hubert Ripka
Jiří Horák
A. Mikojan
L.S.
L.S.
Příloha 1
Annex 1
About the legal status of the Association of Soviet Socialist Republics in the Czechoslovak Republic.
The Trade Representative of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the Czechoslovak Republic shall perform the following tasks:
(a) promote the development of economic relations between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Czechoslovak Republic;
(b) represents the interests of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in foreign trade;
(c) manages, on behalf of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, trade between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Republic of Czechoslovakia,
d) conduct trade with the Czechoslovak Republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The Trade Representative is an essential part of the Embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the Czechoslovak Republic and has its seat in Prague.
The sales office will have its turns in Bratislava and Brno. The opening of trade representatives' turns in other cities of the Czechoslovak Republic will happen after agreement of the Government of the Czechoslovak Republic and the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Commercial representative of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the Czechoslovak Republic and three of its representatives are members of diplomatic staff and enjoy all rights and privileges granted to members of diplomatic missions.
In addition to the persons referred to in the previous paragraph, employees of the commercial office who are citizens of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics shall not be subject to the jurisdiction of the Czechoslovak courts on matters arising from their service. These persons will be relieved in the Czechoslovak Republic of all personal and material duties, both military and civil, and also from the burden of Czechoslovak taxes on pensions which they will receive from the service of the Government of the Soviet Socialist Republic.
The rooms used by the commercial council and its turnovers enjoy the rights of exteritoriality.
The sales department and its turnovers have the right to use ciphers.
The Commercial Prosecutor acts on behalf of the Government of the Soviet Socialist Republic. The Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is responsible only for the business accounts that will be negotiated or guaranteed in the Czechoslovak Republic on behalf of the Commercial Representative and signed by the persons empowered to do so.
Responsibility for any business closures negotiated without the guarantee of a commercial representative, by any state-owned economic organisation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, enjoying under Soviet law the rights of independent legal persons, shall be borne only by designated organisations and the performance under these arrangements may be carried out only on their property. Neither the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics nor its commercial representation in the Czechoslovak Republic nor any other Soviet economic organisation is responsible for the said deadlines.
The commercial representative shall enjoy the privileges and immunities of Article 2 of this Annex, with the following exceptions:
(a) Disputes concerning business closures, agreed or guaranteed in the territory of the Czechoslovak Trade Council, in agreement with the first paragraph of Article 3 of this Annex, shall be subject, unless there are reservations concerning arbitration or other jurisdiction, to the jurisdiction of the Czechoslovak courts and shall be determined in accordance with Czechoslovak laws, unless otherwise specified by the terms of individual business closures or Czechoslovak laws. However, it is not permitted to secure the contested claims on the commercial representative;
(b) The compulsory execution of final pleas in law brought against the commercial representative in those disputes and which have become final may be carried out only in respect of goods and debts of the commercial representative.
The commercial representative is not subject to the regulations on the commercial register. It shall publish in the Official Journal of the Republic of Czechoslovakia the names of the persons empowered to act on its behalf and shall also notify the extent of the rights of each of these persons as regards the signing of the commercial obligations of the commercial agent.
H.R.
J.H.
A. M.
They have examined this agreement with the annex and knowing that the constituent national assembly of the Czechoslovak Republic agrees with them, we approve and confirm them.
We signed this letter on his conscience and had the seal of the Czechoslovak Republic pressed against him.
In Sezimov Ústí, on 8 April, in the summer of the thousand ninety-nine and forty-eight.
President of the Czechoslovak Republic:
Dr Edvard Beneš v. r.
Minister for Foreign Affairs:
Dr V. Clementis v. r.
On page 1.
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Regulation Information
| Citation | Decree No. 31 / 1949 Coll., on the Trade and Navigation Treaty between the Republic of Czechoslovakia and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, signed in Moscow on 11 December 1947 |
|---|---|
| Regulation Type | - |
| Author | - |
| Collection | Code of Laws |
| Date of Promulgation | 20.02.1949 |
|---|---|
| Effective from | 15.06.1948 |
| Effective until | - |
| Status | Valid |
The regulation text is for informational purposes only.
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