Title 19, Customs DutiesRelease 119-102
§294 No Duty by Reason of Documented Vessel Touching at Foreign Port
Title 19 › CHAPTER 3 — THE TARIFF AND RELATED PROVISIONS › SUBTITLE IV — CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATION › part 2 — report, entry, and unlading of vessels and vehicles › § 294
Summary
Goods taken at one U.S. port to go to another on a U.S.-documented vessel won’t be charged import duty just because the ship stopped at a foreign port; this covers warehouse, coastwise/drawback, and duty-paid items.
Full Legal Text
Title 19, §294
Customs Duties, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Any foreign merchandise taken in at one port of the United States to be conveyed in a United States documented vessel with a registry or coastwise endorsement, or both, to any other port within the same, either under the provisions relating to warehouses, or under the laws regulating the transportation coastwise of merchandise entitled to drawback, as well as any merchandise not entitled to drawback, but on which the import duties chargeable by law shall have been duly paid, shall not become subject to any import duty by reason of the vessel in which they may arrive having touched at a foreign port during the voyage.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
Codification R.S. § 3127 derived from act May 27, 1848, ch. 48, § 2, 9 Stat. 232.
Amendments
1996—Pub. L. 104–295 substituted “conveyed in a United” for “conveyed a United”. 1993—Pub. L. 103–182 substituted “a United States documented vessel with a registry or coastwise endorsement, or both,” for “in registered vessels”.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
19 U.S.C. § 294
Title 19, Customs Duties
Last Updated
Aug 21, 2026
Release point: 119-102