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HQ 115929

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June 3, 2003

VES-3:R:IT:EC 115929 TLS

CATEGORY: CARRIER

Ms. Jo Lynn Rice
4014 Cavalier Drive
Rowlett, Texas 75088

RE: Coastwise transportation of passengers; 46 U.S.C. App. §289; 19 CFR 4.80a.

Dear Ms. Rice:

This is in response to your letter dated December 2, 2002 to Congressman Sam Johnson. Your letter, which was subsequently forwarded to the U.S. Department of Transportation, then to the Federal Maritime Commission before ultimately arriving in this office of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), requests permission to allow your son-in-law to join your family on a passenger ship on the third day of a cruise.

FACTS:

Specifically, you request that your son-in-law be allowed to board a foreign-flagged Carnival Cruise Lines vessel in Juneau, Alaska after it has departed from Anchorage, Alaska. The vessel’s destination after your son-in-law embarks at Juneau will be Vancouver, Canada, where he will disembark the vessel.

ISSUE:

Whether a passenger’s embarkation of a foreign-flagged vessel in Juneau, Alaska and subsequent disembarkation in Vancouver, Canada is permissible under 46 U.S.C. App. §289 and 19 CFR 4.80a.

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

CBP enforces various navigation law which deal with the use of vessels in what is recognized as coastwise trade. Included among these laws is the Act of June 19, 1986, as amended (24 Stat. 81; 46 U.S.C. App. §289, sometimes called the coastwise passenger law), which provides that:

No foreign vessel shall transport passengers between ports or places in the United States either directly or by way of a foreign port, under a penalty of $300 for each passenger so transported and landed.

Customs has consistently interpreted the prohibition set forth in 46 U.S.C. App. §289 to apply to all vessels except United States-built, owned, and properly documented vessels (see 46 U.S.C. §12106, 12110; and 46 U.S.C. App. §289). Furthermore, CBP has promulgated regulations pursuant to 46 U.S.C. App. §289. These regulations may be found in 19 CFR 4.80a.

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 internal waters, landward of the territorial sea baseline, in cases where the baseline and coastline differ.

In the scenario you present to us, your son-in-law will embark the vessel in Juneau, Alaska (a coastwise point) and disembark in Vancouver, Canada (a non-coastwise point). (See 19 CFR 4.80a(a)(4) for the definitions of “embark” and “disembark.”) Such activity is permissible under the aforementioned coastwise laws and regulations. We understand that Carnival Cruise Lines has advised you of the same.

HOLDING:

The proposed embarkation of a foreign-flagged vessel in Juneau, Alaska, with a subsequent disembarkation in Vancouver, Canada, is permissible under 46 U.S.C. App. §289 and 19 CFR 480a.

Sincerely,

Glen E. Vereb
Chief

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