Harlan F. Stone

“ Since the right to tax imports in the original package, granted Puerto Rico by the Butler Act, merely makes goods in the original package in Puerto Rico taxable as other goods in the common mass of taxable property, the Butler Act gives to Puerto Rico no broader power to tax oil sales than was possessed by New York, by virtue of its sovereign power, in the Gulf Oil case. McGoldrick v. Berwind-White Co., 309 U.S. 33, 60 S.Ct. 388, 84 L.Ed. 565, 128 A.L.R. 876. Nothing requires us to frustrate the legislative policy of free competition in world markets. ”

“ Fuel oil imports into Puerto Rico are governed by the same tariff provisions, regulations for bonded warehouses and deliveries in bond to purchasers for use in overseas voyages as are those into the continental United States. The language of the Butler Act is held by the Court to require different treatment in New York or Puerto Rico of the same situation, despite the tax inequality produced between the respective taxing units. ”

“ The tax is challenged so far as it is laid on the delivery, in consummation of sales, of fuel oil which has previously been imported in bond and then withdrawn, duty free for delivery to vessels in Puerto Rican ports for use as fuel upon their voyages to ports of the United States or foreign countries. The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has affirmed the judgment of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico sustaining the tax, 54 P.R.Dec. ”