Tariff, Or Rates of Duties Payable on Goods, Wares and Merchandise Imported Into the United States of America, in Conformity with the Act of Congress of March 2, 1861

Gunpowder and Fire-crackers, how to be Exported.

549. Gunpowder, fire-crackers, and other explosive substances, the deposit of which in any public or private bonded warehouse is prohibited by law, may be entered, on arrival from a foreign port, for immediate exportation in bond by sea, it being understood that the warehouse and export entries shall be made simultaneously, and the articles transferred directly from the vessels in which imported to the vessel in which the exportation is to be made. Fire-crackers, securely cased, may also be entered for immediate transportation from one port to another, either by sea or inland, for the purpose of being immediately exported under the rule before provided, from such second port, but in no case to be actually warehoused; and should entry for exportation not be made on arrival at second port, the collector will cause the same to be sold, as in case of failure to enter at port of original importation.

REGULATIONS IN REGARD TO MERCHANDISE IN TRANSIT FROM ONE PORT OF THE UNITED STATES TO ANOTHER, OVER FOR EIGN TERRITORY.

Routes and regu

lations for trans

chandise from

one port to an

other in the United States through Canada.

ART. 953. Merchandise may be transported in bond from the portation of mer- Atlantic ports of the United States, by way of Ogdensburg, Oswego, and Buffalo, and the Collingwood railway between Toronto and Collingwood, in Canada, to the warehousing ports of the United States on Lakes Huron and Michigan, and, also, over the route by way of Ogdensburgh to Hamilton and Niagara, in Canada, connecting with the Great Western railway to Detroit, under the same conditions as those prescribed in Article 451 of these regulations in regard to merchandise passing through a portion of Canada over the Great Western railway.

956. The companies owning the roads or lines must enter into bond, to be approved by the Department, for the safe custody of the merchandise shipped or transported by their lines and placed under customs lock, and two or more competent persons must be appointed and sworn as inspectors of the customs to retain the custody of the goods in transit, and see that they are properly delivered at the port of destination.

Penalty for Smuggling Goods Subject to Duty into the United States, or for attempting to Pass a Fraudulent Invoice. Sec. 19, Act August 30, 1842.

The 19th section of the tariff act of the 30th August, 1842, provides that if any person shall, knowingly and wilfully, with intent to defraud the revenue of the United States, smuggle or clandestinely introduce into the United States, any goods, wares, or merchandise, subject to duty by law, and which should have been invoiced, without paying or accounting for the duty, or shall make out or pass, or attempt to pass, through the customhouse, any false, forged, or fraudulent invoice, such person, and all aiders or abettors, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be fined in any sum not exceeding five thousand dollars, or imprisoned for any term of time not exceeding two years, or both, at the discretion of the court.

Sampling, Packing, and Repacking.

646. All merchandise in public or private bonded warehouses, duly entered for warehousing, may be examined at any time during the business hours of the port by the importer, consignee, or agent, who shall have liberty to take samples of his goods in quantities according to the usage of the port; make all needful repairs of packages, and to repack the same, provided the original contents are placed in the new package, and the original marks and numbers placed thereon, in the mode prescribed in

the 75th section of the act of 2d March, 1799, and 32d section, act of 1st March, 1823; provided, that no samples shall be taken, nor shall any goods be exhibited or examined unless under the immediate supervision of an officer of the customs, and by order of the importer, owner, or consignee, at his expense; nor shall any package be repaired, or goods repacked, without a written order from the collector of the port.

Dutiable Value of Imports.

299. The value upon which duties are to be assessed is thus Value of which established to be:

First. The actual market value or wholesale price of the merchandise in the principal markets of the country from which it was imported into the United States, at the date of exportation, to be ascertained by appraisement.

Second. All costs and charges, except insurance, and including, in every case, a charge for commissions at the usual rates, to be ascertained and added to the value found by appraisement, by the collector and naval officer, or the collector alone at ports where there is no naval officer.

duties are to be assessed.

Definition of the term "country." Stairs and others vs. Peaslee, Howard's Reports, v. 18, p. 522.

300. The term "country," as used in the law, is to be regarded as embracing all the possessions of a nation, however widely separated, which are subject to the same supreme executive and legislative authority and control. Accordingly, where duties were assessed on merchandise imported from Halifax, on its general market value in Liverpool, at the date of its exportation from Halifax to the United States, the action of the Department was sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States; Liverpool being, in the opinion of the appraisers, a principal market of Great Britain for the merchandise in that case. 301. What are to be regarded as the "principal markets" of a Definition of the country, in any given case, is for the determination of the ap-markets. praisers. It is a question of fact, not of law; and the decision of the appraisers is conclusive upon the government and the importer.

302. The "period of exportation," where the merchandise is laden on board a vessel in the shipping port of the country of origin, or in which it was purchased or procured for shipment to an owner, consignee, or agent, residing in the United States, must be deemed and taken to be the date at which the vessel actually leaves the foreign port for her destination in the United States.

terms "principal

Stairs vs. Peas-
Reports, p. 522.

lee, 18 Howard's

Definition of "period of exportation."

That period may ordinarily be established by the production How established of the clearance granted to the vessel at the foreign port of departure, and the declaration of the master, under oath, at the

time of entry, of the date when the vessel sailed.

303. Merchandise from an interior country, having no shipping Date of exporta

chandise from

tion of mer- ports of her own, through the ports of another country, as from countries having Switzerland, for example, destined for the United States by way no shipping of Ifavre, is considered as exported, within the meaning of the law, when it passes the frontier boundary between France and Switzerland, on such destination.

ports.

The wholesale price or general market value of such merchandise in the principal markets of the interior country at the date when it passed the frontier for its destination in the United States, will, on importation and entry, be ascertained by the appraisers with a view to the assessment of duty; and to the value so ascertained will be added the cost of transportation, and other expenses, to the frontier, as dutiable charges.

Satisfactory proof of the date of exportation from such interior country must be exhibited on the entry.

304. In the absence, satisfactorily explained, of the proofs above indicated, showing the date of exportation from the foreign country, or in addition thereto, other evidence of that fact, such as letters of advice, entries in the vessel's log-book or journal, or testimony of witnesses, may be taken into consideration by the appraisers.

305. The law requires that there shall be added to the "actual market value or wholesale price" of imports, ascertained as above, in order to fix the dutiable value, "all costs and charges, except insurance, and including in every case a charge for commissions

at the usual rates."

306. These charges are:

First. The expenses of putting up and packing, together with the value of the sack, package, box, crate, hogshead, barrel, bale, cask, can, bottles, jars, vessels, and demijohns, and coverings of all kinds.

Second. Commissions must in every case be made a dutiable charge at the usual rates, but never less than 2 per cent., withbut the special sanction of the Department, nor less than is stated in the invoice. If it appear on the face of the invoice or entry at less than the usual rate, it must be advanced to that rate for the ascertainment of dutiable value. Where there is a distinct brokerage, or where brokerage is a usual charge at the place of shipment or purchase, that is to be added likewise. Commissions on the amount of shipping charges at the foreign port of exportation constitute one of the charges liable to duty under existing laws and instructions.

Third. Export duty, as on silks from China, storage at the foreign shipping ports, cost of putting cargoes on board ship including drayage, labor, bill of lading, lighterage, town dues, and shipping charges, dock or wharf dues, and all charges to

place the articles on ship-board, and fire insurance, if effected for a period prior to the shipment of goods to the United States. Marine insurance is not to be treated as a dutiable charge. Freight, or cost of transportation, from the foreign port of rance, and cost of exportation, is not a dutiable charge.

Marine insu

transport a tion from port of exportation, to be

able charges..

Merchandise passing through ports of an intermediate country on a destination

States.

307. In the case of merchandise arriving in the United States, excluded as dutiafter having been transported from the country of its production, manufacture, or procurement, to another country, by land or water, and the collector of the customs at the port of importation, shall be satisfied by the evidence adduced, that the merchandise was originally exported with a bona fide intention of having it trans for the United ported to a port in the United States as its final port of destina tion, no dutiable costs or charges will have accrued, either on the transportation from the first to the intermediate port, or while remaining in or leaving the latter, the voyage or transportation being regarded as continuous from the country whence originally exported in good faith, on a declared destination for a port and parties in the United States.

In illustration of this rule, it may be remarked, that the evi- Illustrations the regulation. dence of final destination being satisfactory, no duties would be chargeable in ports of the United States on the freight, or transportation, or charges in the intermediate ports, on goods origi nally from China to Liverpool, from Malaga to Valparaiso, from Dresden to Bremen, or from Basle to Havre, on the said goods being transhipped for the United States from the several intermediate ports enumerated.

ceived,

593. The following is the list of fees required by law to be Fees to be re paid at the several custom-houses, and no other fees shall be

received than those here specially enumerated

For admeasuring every vessel, in order to the enrol

ment, or licensing and recording the same, if

of 5 tons and less than 20