Title 48, Territories and Insular PossessionsRelease 119-102

§1394 Customs Duties and Internal-revenue Taxes

Title 48 › CHAPTER 7 — VIRGIN ISLANDS › SUBCHAPTER I — GENERAL PROVISIONS › § 1394

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

Goods from the Virgin Islands must pay the same customs and internal-revenue taxes as similar imports from foreign countries. But products grown or made in the Virgin Islands from local or U.S. materials, or with foreign content of 20% or less and that did not get a customs-duty refund there, can enter the United States free. Materials that could enter the continental United States duty-free are not counted as foreign.

Full Legal Text

Title 48, §1394

Territories and Insular Possessions, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

There shall be levied, collected, and paid upon all articles coming into the United States or its possessions from the Virgin Islands the rates of duty and internal-revenue taxes which are required to be levied, collected, and paid upon like articles imported from foreign countries: Provided, That all articles, the growth or product of, or manufactured in, such islands, from materials the growth or product of such islands or of the United States, or of both, or which do not contain foreign materials to the value of more than 20 per centum of their total value, upon which no drawback of customs duties has been allowed therein, coming into the United States from such islands shall be admitted free of duty. In determining whether such a Virgin Islands article contains foreign material to the value of more than 20 per centum, no material shall be considered foreign which, at the time the Virgin Islands article is entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption, may be imported into the continental United States free of duty generally.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1950—Act Sept. 7, 1950, permitted free entry of articles into the United States from the Virgin Islands when such articles contain foreign materials which may be imported directly into the United States free of duty.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

48 U.S.C. § 1394

Title 48, Territories and Insular Possessions

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102