ARTICLE 2

There shall be full and complete freedom of commerce and navigation between Belgium and Honduras.

The citizens of each of the high contracting parties shall enjoy within the territory of the other, in matters of commerce, trade and navigation, the same rights, privileges, liberties, prerogatives, immunities and exemptions either granted already or to be granted in the future to the citizens of the most favored nations.

ARTICLE 3

Belgians in Honduras and the Hondurans in Belgium shall respectively be free to settle like nationals themselves their affairs of their own accord, or to entrust the settlement of them to the care of any other person, such as broker, mercantile agent or interpreter. No pressure shall be exerted upon them in making these selections, and they shall not be compelled to pay any salary or other compensation to those whom they shall not have deemed expedient to employ to that end; purchasers and vendors will, in addition, be absolutely free to combine efforts in their mercantile enterprises and to fix the price of any staple goods or merchandise imported or intended to be exported, provided they conform to the laws and customs regulations of the country.

ARTICLE 4

The citizens of each of the contracting parties shall be exempt within the territory of the other from all military service in the regular army and navy, as well as in the national guard and militia.

They shall be subject in time of peace and in time of war only to the services and military requisitions imposed upon nationals, and have a mutual right to the indemnities established in favor of nationals by the laws in force in the two countries.

ARTICLE 5

Vessels navigating under the respective flags and bearing the registry papers and documents required to prove the nationality of the mercantile vessels by the laws of the state to which they respectively belong, shall be considered Belgian in Honduras and Honduran in Belgium.

ARTICLE 6

The vessels of either of the two high contracting parties entering in ballast or loaded in the harbors of the other, or sailing from the latter, whatever be the place of their departure or of their destination, shall, in all respects, be treated on the same basis as national vessels. As well upon their arrival as upon their departure and during their stay in the harbor, they shall pay no other, nor higher tonnage, light-house, pilot, harbor, towing, quarantine duties, or any charges imposed upon the hull of the vessel under whatever description, collected for the benefit or in the name of the state, public officials, districts or corporations, or other establishments whatever, except such as are or may in future have to be paid by national vessels.

ARTICLE 7

In regard to the stationing of vessels, their loading and unloading in the harbors, estuaries, bays and basins, and in general in regard to all formalities and regulations of any nature whatever imposed upon vessels of commerce, their crews and cargoes, it is agreed that there shall be granted to the vessels of either of the high contracting parties no privilege nor any favor that is not equally granted to the vessels of the other, the desire of the two parties being that in this respect their vessels shall be treated on the basis of absolute equality.

ARTICLE 8

The vessels of each of the two states entering into the ports of the other to complete their loading or to unload a part of their cargo may, by conforming to the laws and regulations of the respective states, keep on board that part of the cargo which might be destined for another port, either of the same country, or of another, and to re-export the same, without being subjected to pay for this latter part of their cargo any customs duties, except dues for protection, which may, however, be collected only at the rate determined for national navigation.

ARTICLE 9

Merchandise of any nature, whose importation into the ports of Belgium is or shall be legally permitted in Belgian vessels, may likewise be imported in Honduran vessels without being subject to other or

higher duties of any description whatever than if the said merchandise were imported in national vessels.

Merchandise of any nature, whose importation into the ports of Honduras is or shall be legally permitted in Honduran vessels, may likewise be imported in Belgian vessels without being subject to other or higher duties of any description whatever than if the said merchandise were imported in national vessels.

Exception is made to the stipulations of the present treaty in regard to the advantages of which the products of national fisheries are or may be the object in one or the other of the respective countries.

ARTICLE 10

Merchandise of any nature exported from Belgium in Honduran vessels, or from Honduras in Belgian vessels, for any destination whatever, shall not be subject to any other duties or clearing formalities than if they were exported in national vessels, and they shall enjoy, under either flag, premiums or rebates of duties or other favors that are or may be granted in each of the respective countries to the national navigation.

ARTICLE 11

During the time fixed by the laws of each of the respective countries in regard to the storing of merchandise, the latter shall be cared for while awaiting transit, re-exportation or entry into the markets, by either of the two parties, in the same manner as merchandise imported under the national flag.

These goods, in no case, shall be subject to higher storage duties and any other formalities than if they had been imported under the national flag or had been brought in from the most favored country.

ARTICLE 12

Merchandise of any nature passing through either of the two states shall be mutually exempt from all transit duties, without prejudice to the special regulation regarding gun-powder, weapons and munitions of

war.

The treatment of the most favored nation is mutually guaranteed to each of the two countries in all matters regarding transit.

ARTICLE 13

Neither of the two high contracting parties shall subject the other to any prohibition on importation, exportation or transit which is not equally applied to all other nations, except temporary prohibitions or restrictions which the one or the other of the parties might consider necessary for sanitary reasons, to prevent the spreading of epizootics or the destruction of the crops.

ARTICLE 14

The right of coastwise shipping from port to port within the territory of the two respective states shall be regulated in accordance with the laws and ordinances in force. But it is agreed between the two high contracting parties that in all respects, and within the territory of the other, each of them shall enjoy the favors and privileges which may be granted to the most favored nations.

ARTICLE 15

Neither of the high contracting parties shall impose upon merchandise directly produced from the soil or the industry of the other party any other or higher duties of importation than those that are or may be laid upon the same kind of merchandise derived from any other foreign state. Each of the two parties pledges itself to let the other participate in any favor, privilege or rebate in the scale of duties on importation or exportation, which the other might grant to a third Power.

They pledge themselves, in addition, not to establish, the one against the other, any duty on importation or exportation which is not at the same time applied to all other nations.

ARTICLE 16

The high contracting parties declare hereby the mutual recognition to all companies and other commercial, industrial or financial associations, constituted or authorized according to the particular laws of one of the two countries, of the privilege to exercise all rights and to summon before the tribunals, either for the purpose of instituting a law-suit or of defending a law-suit, over the whole extent of the territory of the other state, without any other condition except that of conforming to the laws of that state. These companies or associations, established in the territory of one of the high contracting parties, may exercise within the

territory of the other party the rights which are granted to similar societies of all the other countries.

It is agreed that the preceding dispositions are applicable both to the companies and associations constituted or authorized before the signing of the present treaty, and to those that might be constituted or authorized subsequently.

ARTICLE 17

Vessels, merchandise and goods belonging to Belgians or to Hondurans which might have been seized by pirates within the limits of the jurisdiction of one of the two contracting parties, or on the high sea, and which might be forwarded to or found in the ports, rivers, estuaries or bays under the dominion of the other contracting party, shall be restored to their owners by the payment, if necessary, of the expenses incurred for their recovery, which shall be determined by the competent courts when the right of ownership shall have been proven before the courts and upon the demand that will have to be made, within the period of one year, by the interested parties, through their fully empowered representatives or by the agents of the respective governments.

ARTICLE 18

In all matters regarding navigation and commerce, the high contracting parties may not grant any privilege, favor or immunity to another state which is not also and immediately granted to their respective subjects.

ARTICLE 19

Each of the high contracting parties pledges itself to apply to the citizens of the other, the treatment of the most favored nation in all matters relating to the awarding of public works.

ARTICLE 20

Commercial agents traveling in Belgium in behalf of a firm established in Honduras, and commercial agents traveling in Honduras in behalf of a firm established in Belgium, shall not pay a higher license than that to which the commercial agents of all other nations are subject.

If the commercial agents of Belgian firms should be exempted in Honduras from the payment of license taxes, by way of reciprocity the same exemption shall be extended to the commercial agents of Honduran firms in Belgium.