HQ 111302: Coastwise trade; Passenger transportation; 46 U.S.C. App. 289

Native CBP ruling rendition. Applicability is fact-specific; modification/revocation relationships and original publisher date are retained. Publisher sentinel year0001 means unknown date, not a historical legal adoption.

                            HQ 111302

                           March 4, 1991


VES-3-CO:R:IT:C  111302 LLB

CATEGORY:  Carriers

Mr. Jacob van Hekke
Assistant Transportation Attache
Royal Netherlands Embassy
4200 Linnean Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008

RE:  Coastwise trade; Passenger transportation; 46 U.S.C. App.
     289

Dear Mr. van Hekke:

     Reference is made to your letter of July 23, 1990, with
attachment, which you sent to the U.S. Maritime Administration
and which was forwarded to the U.S. Customs Service for reply.
Your letter asks several questions about potential passenger
transportation itineraries within the United States.

FACTS:

     A Dutch shipbuilding company has asked several questions
concerning the scope of the passenger transportation statute.
It is asked whether the coastwise transportation statute would
prohibit:

     -    a vessel sailing within the confines of a single port
          (like a bus) to take on and discharge passengers at
          various points.

     -    a vessel sailing to link several municipalities within
          a single state, all under the jurisdiction of one
          transportation authority;

     -    a vessel sailing to link several municipalities which
          may be located in more than one state, all under the
          jurisdiction of one regional transportation authority.


ISSUE:

     Whether the coastwise transportation passenger statute
prohibits the transportation of passengers on unqualified vessels
between U.S. points located within a single harbor, within a
single state, and/or in different states.

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

     The coastwise passenger transportation statute, codified in
section 289 of title 46, United States Code Appendix (46 U.S.C.
App. 289), as interpreted in concert with the coastwise laws
generally (46 U.S.C. App. 883, and 46 U.S.C. 12106 and 12110),
prohibits the transportation of passengers between coastwise
points on vessels not properly admitted to that service.  The
statute is triggered when passengers embark at one coastwise
point and disembark (terminate their voyage) at another.

     The coastwise transportation passenger statute is strictly
construed to include even movements within the same harbor, and
the fact that the various coastwise points to which movement is
contemplated may be under the authority of a single local or
regional transportation authority is of no relevance.  Given any
of the three proposed itineraries, a violation would have
occurred when a passenger taken aboard at one point in the United
States is disembarked at another such point.

HOLDING:

     A non-coastwise-qualified vessel may not be legally utilized
to transport passengers between coastwise points, whether those
points are in the same harbor, the same state, or otherwise, and
regardless of whether those points may be under the jurisdiction
of a single transportation authority.

                           Sincerely,




                           B. James Fritz
                           Chief
                           Carrier Rulings Branch