Jones Act Text
TITLE 46, APPENDIX--SHIPPING
CHAPTER 24--MERCHANT MARINE ACT, 1920
Sec. 883. Transportation of merchandise between points in United
States in other than domestic built or rebuilt and documented
vessels; incineration of hazardous waste at sea
No merchandise, including merchandise owned by the United States
Government, a State (as defined in section 2101 of the 1 title 46), or
a subdivision of a State, 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 transportation, 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, including
Districts, Territories, and possessions thereof 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, or vessels to which the privilege of
engaging in the coastwise trade is extended by section 808 of this
Appendix or section 22 2 of this Act:
Provided, That no vessel having
at any time acquired the lawful right to engage in the coastwise trade,
either by virtue of having been built in, or documented under the laws
of the United States, and later sold foreign in whole or in part, or
placed under foreign registry, shall hereafter acquire the right to
engage in the coastwise trade: Provided further, That no vessel which
has acquired the lawful right to engage in the coastwise trade, by
virtue of having been built in or documented under the laws of the
United States, and which has later been rebuilt shall have the right
thereafter to engage in the coastwise trade, unless the entire
rebuilding, including the construction of any major components of the
hull or superstructure of the vessel, is effected within the United
States, its territories (not including trust territories), or its
possessions:
Provided further, That this section shall not apply to
merchandise transported between points within the continental United
States, including Alaska, over through routes heretofore or hereafter
recognized by the Interstate Commerce Commission for which routes rate
tariffs have been or shall hereafter be filed with said Commission when
such routes are in part over Canadian rail lines and their own or other
connecting water facilities: Provided further, That this section shall
not become effective upon the Yukon River until the Alaska Railroad
shall be completed and the Secretary of Transportation shall find that
proper facilities will be furnished for transportation by persons
citizens of the United States for properly handling the traffic:
Provided further, That this section shall not apply to the
transportation of merchandise loaded on railroad cars or to motor
vehicles with or without trailers, and with their passengers or contents
when accompanied by the operator thereof, when such railroad cars or
motor vehicles are transported in any railroad car ferry operated
between fixed termini on the Great Lakes as a part of a rail route, if
such car ferry is owned by a common carrier by water and operated as
part of a rail route with the approval of the Interstate Commerce
Commission, and if the stock of such common carrier by water, or its
predecessor, was owned or controlled by a common carrier by rail prior
to June 5, 1920, and if the stock of the common carrier owning such car
ferry is, with the approval of the Interstate Commerce Commission, now
owned or controlled by any common carrier by rail and if such car ferry
is built in and documented under the laws of the United States: Provided
further, That upon such terms and conditions as the Secretary of the
Treasury by regulation may prescribe, and, if the transporting vessel is
of foreign registry, upon a finding by the Secretary of the Treasury,
pursuant to information obtained and furnished by the Secretary of
State, that the government of the nation of registry extends reciprocal
privileges to vessels of the United States, this section shall not apply
to the transportation by vessels of the United States not qualified to
engage in the coastwise trade, or by vessels of foreign registry, of (a)
empty cargo vans, empty lift vans, and empty shipping tanks, (b)
equipment for use with cargo vans, lift vans, or shipping tanks, (c)
empty barges specifically designed for carriage aboard a vessel and
equipment, excluding propulsion equipment, for use with such barges, and
(d) any empty instrument for international traffic exempted from
application of the customs laws by the Secretary of the Treasury
pursuant to the provisions of section 1322(a) of title 19, if the
articles described in clauses (a) through (d) are owned or leased by the
owner or operator of the transporting vessel and are transported for his
use in handling his cargo in foreign trade; and (e) stevedoring
equipment and material, if such equipment and material is owned or
leased by the owner or operator of the transporting vessel, or is owned
or leased by the stevedoring company contracting for the lading or
unlading of that vessel, and is transported without charge for use in
the handling of cargo in foreign trade:
Provided further, That upon such terms and conditions as the Secretary
of the Treasury by regulation may prescribe, and, if the transporting
vessel is of foreign registry, upon
his finding, pursuant to information furnished by the Secretary of
State, that the government of the nation of registry extends reciprocal
privileges to vessels of the United States, the Secretary of the
Treasury may suspend the application of this section to the
transportation of merchandise between points in the United States
(excluding transportation between the continental United States and
noncontiguous states, districts, territories, and possessions embraced
within the coastwise laws) which, while moving in the foreign trade of
the United States, is transferred from a non-self-propelled barge
certified by the owner or operator to be specifically designed for
carriage aboard a vessel and regularly carried aboard a vessel in
foreign trade to another such barge owned or leased by the same owner or
operator, without regard to whether any such barge is under foreign
registry or qualified to engage in the coastwise trade:
Provided further, That until April 1, 1984, and notwithstanding any other
provisions of this section, any vessel documented under the laws of the
United States and owned by persons who are citizens of the United States
may, when operated upon a voyage in foreign trade, transport merchandise
in cargo vans, lift vans, and shipping-tanks between points embraced
within the coastwise laws for transfer to or when transferred from
another vessel or vessels, so documented and owned, of the same operator
when the merchandise movement has either a foreign origin or a foreign
destination; but this proviso (1) shall apply only to vessels which that
same operator owned, chartered or contracted for the construction of
prior to November 16, 1979, and (2) shall not apply to movements between
points in the contiguous United States and points in Hawaii, Alaska, the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and United States territories and
possessions. For the purposes of this section, after December 31, 1983,
or after such time as an appropriate vessel has been constructed and
documented as a vessel of the United States, the transportation of
hazardous waste, as defined in section 6903(5) of title 42, from a point
in the United States for the purpose of the incineration at sea of that
waste shall be deemed to be transportation by water of merchandise
between points in the United States:
Provided, however, That the provisions of this sentence shall not apply to this
transportation when performed by a foreign-flag ocean incineration vessel, owned
by or under construction on May 1, 1982, for a corporation wholly owned by a citizen
of the United States; the term ``citizen of the United States'', as used
in this proviso, means a corporation as defined in section 802(a) and
(b) of this Appendix. The incineration equipment on these vessels shall
meet all current United States Coast Guard and Environmental Protection
Agency standards. These vessels shall, in addition to any other
inspections by the flag state, be inspected by the United States Coast
Guard, including drydock inspections and internal examinations of tanks
and void spaces, as would be required of a vessel of the United States.
Satisfactory inspection shall be certified in writing by the Secretary
of Transportation. Such inspections may occur concurrently with any
inspections required by the flag state or subsequent to but no more than
one year after the initial issuance or the next scheduled issuance of
the Safety of Life at Sea Safety Construction Certificate. In making
such inspections, the Coast Guard shall refer to the conditions
established by the initial flag state certification as the basis for
evaluating the current condition of the hull and superstructure. The
Coast Guard shall allow the substitution of an equivalent fitting,
material, appliance, apparatus, or equipment other than that required
for vessels of the United States if the Coast Guard has been satisfied
that fitting, material, appliance, apparatus, or equipment is at least
as effective as that required for vessels of the United States 3
Provided further, That for the purposes of this section, supplies aboard
United States documented fish processing vessels, which are necessary
and used for the processing or assembling of fishery products aboard
such vessels, shall be considered ship's equipment and not merchandise:
Provided further, That for purposes of this section, the term
``merchandise'' includes valueless material:
Provided further, That this section applies to the transportation of valueless material or any
dredged material regardless of whether it has commercial value, from a
point or place in the United States or a point or place on the high seas
within the Exclusive Economic Zone as defined in the Presidential
Proclamation of March 10, 1983, to another point or place in the United
States or a point or place on the high seas within that Exclusive
Economic Zone:
Provided further, That the transportation of any platform
jacket in or on a launch barge between two points in the United States,
at one of which there is an installation or other device within the
meaning of section 1333(a) of title 43, shall not be deemed
transportation subject to this section if the launch barge has a launch
capacity of 12,000 long tons or more, was built as of June 7, 1988, and
is documented under the laws of the United States, and the platform
jacket cannot be transported on and launched from a launch barge of
lesser launch capacity that is identified by the Secretary of
Transportation and is available for such transportation.
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1 So in original. The word ``the'' probably should not appear.
2 See References in Text note below.
3 So in original. Probably should be followed by a colon.
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(June 5, 1920, ch. 250, Sec. 27, 41 Stat. 999; Ex. Ord. No. 6166,
Sec. 12, eff. June 10, 1933; Apr. 11, 1935, ch. 58, 49 Stat. 154; July
2, 1935, ch. 355, 49 Stat. 442; June 29, 1936, ch. 858, title II,
Sec. 204, title IX, Sec. 904, 49 Stat. 1987, 2016; 1950 Reorg. Plan No.
21, Sec. 204, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3178, 64 Stat. 1276; July 14,
1956, ch. 600, Sec. 1, 70 Stat. 544; July 7, 1958, Pub. L. 85-508,
Sec. 27(a), 72 Stat. 351; July 5, 1960, Pub. L. 86-583, Sec. 1, 74 Stat.
321; Sept. 21, 1965, Pub. L. 89-194, 79 Stat. 823; Aug. 11, 1968, Pub.
L. 90-474, 82 Stat. 700; Nov. 23, 1971, Pub. L. 92-163, Sec. 1, 85 Stat.
486; Oct. 3, 1978, Pub. L. 95-410, title II, Sec. 213, 92 Stat. 904;
Nov. 16, 1979, Pub. L. 96-112, Sec. 4, 93 Stat. 848; Aug. 6, 1981, Pub.
L. 97-31, Sec. 12(49), 95 Stat. 157; Dec. 29, 1982, Pub. L. 97-389,
title V, Secs. 502, 504, 96 Stat. 1954, 1956; Jan. 11, 1988, Pub. L.
100-239, Sec. 6(c)(1), 101 Stat. 1782; June 7, 1988, Pub. L. 101-329,
Sec. 1(a), 102 Stat. 588; Nov. 4, 1992, Pub. L. 102-587, title V,
Sec. 5501(b), 106 Stat. 5085.)
References in Text
Section 22 of this Act, referred to in text, is section 22 of act
June 5, 1920, which was classified to section 13 of former Title 46,
Shipping, and was repealed by Pub. L. 100-710, title II, Sec. 202(4),
Nov. 23, 1988, 102 Stat. 4753.
The Presidential Proclamation of March 10, 1983, referred to in
text, is Proc. No. 5030, Mar. 10, 1983, 48 F.R. 10605, which is set out
as a note under section 1453 of Title 16, Conservation.
Prior Provisions
Provisions similar to those in this section were contained in act
Feb. 17, 1898, ch. 26, Sec. 1, 30 Stat. 248, which was classified to
section 290 of this Appendix.
Amendments
1992--Pub. L. 102-587, in first sentence, substituted ``No
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