TOURISTS’ EFFECTS., July 29, 1878

TOURISTS’ EFFECTS.

To Collectors of Customs and others:

The attention of the department has been invited to the fact that tourists and other persons visiting foreign countries return to the United States with articles subject to duty.

Such tourists are often under the erroneous impression that all articles purchased for their personal use, or for the use of friends, or intended as presents, are exempt from duty.

Officers of the customs and United States consular officers abroad are therefore instructed to inform them, as far as practicable, of the laws and regulations relating to such importations, and especially of the provisions of the Revised Statutes imposing penalties for the unlawful importation of merchandise into the United States.

All articles subject to duty, whether contained in baggage or otherwise, must be reported to the customs officers on arrival at a port in the United States, under the penalties of section 2802 of the Revised Statutes, which is as follows:

“Whenever any article subject to duty is found in the baggage of any person arriving within the United States, which was not, at the time of making entry for such baggage, mentioned to the collector before whom such entry was made by the person making entry, such article shall be forfeited, and the person in whose baggage it is found shall be liable to a penalty treble the value of such article.”

Persons who arrive in the United States will be required to make due entry, on blanks to be furnished them by the proper customs officer, of the articles believed to be entitled to free admission under the provisions of the law above referred to, and to make oath, as provided for by section 2799 of the Revised Statutes, that the entry contains a just and true account of the contents of the package or packages mentioned therein, and that no such packages contain any merchandise whatever other than the articles specified.

A separate entry must be made of all dutiable articles contained in the baggage, to which the oath of the passenger must also be annexed. Such entry must specify the name of the article, the precise quantity thereof, and the exact cost or foreign market value. It will be the duty of the surveyor of customs to see that the baggage-entry is made by each cabin passenger, and filed in the custom house. Blank forms will be furnished by the customs officers to the passengers, and the officers of the steamers are hereby respectfully requested to co-operate with this department in its efforts to carry out the law by delivering to each passenger one or more of the blanks.

The following articles are free of duty:

Amber beads.

Articles, the growth, produce, and manufacture of the United States, when returned in the same condition as exported. But proof of the identity of such articles shall be made under regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury; and if such articles were subject to internal tax at the time of exportation, such tax shall be proved to have been paid before exportation and not refunded. These regulations require the production of the following documents on free entry of American goods: First. Record evidence from the files of the custom-house of the fact of exportation. Second. The oath of the party making entry that the goods are of domestic production or manufacture. Third. A certificate of the foreign customs officer at the port of shipment, countersigned by a consul of the United States, showing that such merchandise was imported into that country from the United States in the condition in which it is returned. Where there is no customs officer at the foreign port of shipment, the certificate of the foreign recipient of the goods, countersigned by a United States consul, may be accepted in lieu thereof.

Birds, stuffed.

Birds, singing and other, and land and water fowls.

Books which shall have been printed and manufactured more than twenty years at the date of importation.

Books, professional, of persons arriving in the United States.

Books, household effects, or libraries, or parts of libraries, in use of persons or families from foreign countries, if used abroad by them not less than one year, and not intended for any other person or persons, nor for sale.

Cabinets of coins, medals, and all other collections of antiquities.

Collections of antiquity, specially imported, and not for sale.

Diamonds, rough or uncut.

Dried and prepared flowers.

Fans, common palm-leaf.

Fruit-plants, tropical and semi-tropical, for the purpose of propagation or cultivation.

Manuscripts.

Medals of gold, silver, or copper. Mineral waters, all, not artificial.

Models of inventions and other improvements in the arts. But no article or articles shall be deemed a model, or improvement, which can be fitted for use.

Ores of gold and silver.

Palm and cocoa-nut oil. . Personal and household effects, not merchandise, of citizens of the United States dying abroad.

Seeds: cardamom, caraway, coriander, fenugreek, fennel, cummin, and other seeds, not otherwise provided for.

Seeds: anise, anise star, canary, chia, sesamum, sugar-cane, and seeds of forest trees.

Shells of every description, not manufactured.

Specimens of natural history, botany, and mineralogy, when imported for cabinets as objects of taste or science, and not for sale.

Teams of animals, including their harness and tackle, actually owned by persons immigating to the United States with their families from foreign countries, and in actual use for the purposes, of such immigration.

Tortoise and other shell, unmanufactured.

Wafers.

Wearing apparel in actual use, and other personal effects (not merchandise), professional books, implements, instruments, and tools of trade, occupation, or employment of persons arriving in the United States. But this exemption shall not be construed to include machinery or other articles imported for use in any manufacturing establishment or for sale.

Works of art; paintings, statuary, fountains, and other works of art, the production of American artists. But the fact of such production must be verified by the certificate of any consul or minister of the United States, indorsed upon the written declaration of the artist.

The following classes of goods are subject to the rates of duty named:

Manufactures of cotton not specially provided for, 35 per cent. ad valorem.

Manufactures of flax not specially provided for, 40 per cent. ad valorem.

Thread lace and insertings, 30 per cent. ad valorem.

Spirits, manufactured or distilled from grain or other materials, $2 per proof gallon.

Schedule D of the Revised Statutes provides as follows: “Wines, brandy, and other spirituous liquors imported in bottles, shall be packed in packages containing not less than one dozen bottles in each package; and all such bottles shall pay an additional duty of three cents for each bottle. Any brandy or other spirituous liquors imported in casks of less capacity than fourteen gallons shall be forfeited to the United States.”

Cigars, cigarettes, and cheroots, $2.50 per pound and 25 per cent. ad valorem. In addition to this, an internal-revenue tax of $6 per thousand on cigars and cheroots, and on cigarettes weighing over three pounds per thousand. On cigarettes weighing three pounds or less per thousand, $1.75 per thousand.

Section 2804 of the Revised Statutes provides as follows: “No cigars shall be imported unless the same are packed in boxes of not more than five hundred cigars in each box, and no entry of any imported cigars shall be allowed of less quantity than three thousand in a single package.”

Cigars found in the baggage of any person arriving from a foreign country, not exceeding five hundred in number, may be delivered upon payment of a fine equivalent to what the duty would have been had the importation been a legal one, without the special intervention of this department.

Women’s and children’s dress-goods, composed wholly or in part of wool or worsted, value not exceeding 20 cents per square yard, 6 cents per square yard and 35 per cent. ad valorem; at above 20 cents per square yard, 8 cents per square yard and 40 per cent. ad valorem. Any such goods weighing four ounces and over per square yard, 50 cents per pound and 35 per cent. ad valorem.

Clothing, ready-made, and wearing apparel of every description, composed in part of wool or worsted, 50 cents per pound and 40 per cent. ad valorem.

All manufactures of silk, or of which silk is a component of chief value, not having 25 per cent. or over in value of cotton, flax, wool, or worsted, 60 per cent, ad valorem.

Kid, and other gloves of leather, 50 per cent. ad valorem.

Jewelry, 25 per cent. ad valorem.

Paintings and statuary not specially provided for, 10 per cent. ad valorem. Precious stones, unset, 10 per cent. ad valorem.

The foregoing are general statements of provisions of law relating to the classes of goods specified, but the rates referred to are modified in many instances by specific designations of articles paying other rates of duty.

Attention is also called to the notice to cabin passengers found on the back of the form of entry of baggage and of all dutiable articles brought by cabin passengers. (Cat. No. 1129.)