HQ 112390: Anti-pollution vessels; Coastwise merchandise statute; Trash collection; foreign-built vessels; valueless materials amendment; Merchandise; Transportation; 46 U.S.C. App. 883

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 112390

                        February 8, 1993


VES-3-CO:R:IT:C  112390 LLB

CATEGORY:  Carriers

Mr. Edward G. Schreiber, Jr.
Marubeni America Corporation
200 Park Avenue
New York, New York 10166-0199

RE:  Anti-pollution vessels; Coastwise merchandise statute; Trash
     collection; foreign-built vessels; valueless materials
     amendment; Merchandise; Transportation; 46 U.S.C. App. 883

Dear Mr. Schreiber:

     Reference is made to your letter of July 17, 1992, which
requests a binding Customs ruling regarding the use of certain
foreign-built vessels to remove water-borne garbage and trash from
harbors and ports in the United States.

FACTS:

     It is proposed that certain refuse collection vessels which
were constructed in Japan be sold to United States interests and
be used to assist in cleaning harbors and post areas in the United
States of water-borne trash and garbage.  The vessels would collect
refuse in the course of cruising harbor and port areas.

ISSUE:

     Whether foreign-built vessels may be utilized to retrieve
trash from ports and harbors located within the territorial waters
of the United States without legal consequence under the
merchandise transportation statute, popularly known as the Jones
Act.

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

     Generally, the coastwise laws (e.g., 46 U.S.C. App. 289 and
883, and 46 U.S.C. 12106 and 12110) prohibit the transportation of
merchandise or passengers between points in the United States
embraced within the coastwise laws in any vessel other than a
vessel built in and documented under the laws of the United 

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States, and owned by persons who are citizens of the United States.

     The coastwise law pertaining to the transportation of
merchandise, section 27 of the Act of June 5, 1920, as amended (41
Stat. 999; 46 U.S.C. App. 883, often called the Jones Act),
provides that:

               No merchandise shall be transported by water,
               or by land and water, on penalty of forfeiture
               of the merchandise (or a monetary amount up to
               the value thereof as determined by the Secretary
               of the Treasury, or the actual cost of the trans-

               portation, whichever is greater, to be recovered
               from any consignor, seller, owner, importer,
               consignee, agent, or other person or persons
               so transporting or causing said merchandise to be
               transported), between points in the United
               States...embraced within the coastwise laws,      
          either directly or via a foreign port, or for
               any part of the transportation, in any other      
          vessel than a vessel built in and documented
               under the laws of the United States and owned
               by persons who are citizens of the United         
     States... 

     The coastwise laws generally apply to points in the
territorial sea, defined as the belt, three nautical miles wide,
seaward of the territorial sea baseline, and to points located in
the internal waters, landward of the territorial sea baseline, in
cases where the baseline and the coastline differ.  These laws have
also been interpreted to apply to transportation between points
within a single harbor.

     "Merchandise", as used in section 883, includes any article,
including even materials of no value (see the amendment to section
883 by the Act of June 7, 1988, Pub. L. 100-329; 102 Stat. 588). 


     It is the position of the Customs Service that the retrieval
of discarded materials from different points within the territorial
waters constitutes the lading of merchandise at those different
sites.  The subsequent unlading of those materials at another such
location would trigger a violation of the statute.








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HOLDING:

     A non-coastwise-qualified vessel may not be used to gather
trash and garbage from waters within the jurisdiction of the United
States and unlade it at a different such place, whether ashore or
to another vessel, without violating the proscriptions of the
merchandise transportation statute, codified at 46 U.S.C. App. 883.

                                  Sincerely,




                                  Acting Chief