§219 — Title 50 War and National Defense | U.S. Code

Summary

If the President decides that import duties can’t be collected the normal way or under the rules in section 218 for the reasons listed there, he can move the customs office for that port to any secure place in the district — on land, on a ship, or at sea near the coast. The customs collector must live there or on the ship and hold all vessels and cargo that arrive or come near until the duties are paid in cash. If the owner, the person getting the cargo, or the ship’s master wants to go to a different district’s port where no such problem exists, the master can change the destination on the ship’s manifest and the collector must give a written permit to go. The Secretary of the Treasury, with the President’s OK, must make rules for how to carry out duty checks and collections on ships when needed and practical.

Title 50, §219

War and National Defense — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Whenever, at any port of entry, the duties on imports cannot, in the judgment of the President, be collected in the ordinary way, or by the course provided in section 218 11 See References in Text note below. of this title, by reason of the cause mentioned in said section, he may direct that the customhouse for the district be established in any secure place within the district, either on land or on board any vessel in the district, or at sea near the coast; and in such case the collector shall reside at such place, or on shipboard, as the case may be, and there detain all vessels and cargoes arriving within or approaching the district, until the duties imposed by law on such vessels and their cargoes are paid in cash. But if the owner or consignee of the cargo on board any vessel thus detained, or the master of the vessel, desires to enter a port of entry in any other district where no such obstructions to the execution of the laws exist, the master may be permitted so to change the destination of the vessel and cargo in his manifest; whereupon the collector shall deliver him a written permit to proceed to the port so designated. And the Secretary of the Treasury, with the approval of the President, shall make proper regulations for the enforcement on shipboard of such provisions of the laws regulating the assessment and collection of duties as in his judgment may be necessary and practicable.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

section 218 of this title, referred to in text, was repealed by Pub. L. 89–554, § 8(a), Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 632. Codification R.S. § 5315 derived from acts July 13, 1861, ch. 3, § 2, 12 Stat. 256; Mar. 3, 1875, ch. 136, § 2, 18 Stat. 469.

Executive Documents

Transfer of Functions

All offices of collector of customs, comptroller of customs, surveyor of customs, and appraiser of merchandise of the Bureau of Customs of Department of the Treasury to which appointments were required to be made by President with advice and consent of Senate ordered abolished, with such offices to be terminated not later than Dec. 31, 1966, by Reorg. Plan No. 1, of 1965, eff.

May 25, 1965, 30 F.R. 7035, 79 Stat. 1317, set out in the Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees. All functions of offices eliminated were already vested in Secretary of the Treasury by Reorg. Plan No. 26 of 1950, eff.

July 31, 1950, 15 F.R. 4935, 64 Stat. 1280, set out in the Appendix to Title 5.

§219 Removal of Customhouse and Detention of Vessels Thereat