Proclamation 2948—Merchandise in General-Order and Bonded Warehouses

Whereas section 491 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (46 Stat. 726; 52 Stat. 1083; 19 U.S.C. 1491), provides in part as follows:

Any entered or unentered merchandise (except merchandise entered under section 557 of this Act, but including merchandise entered for transportation in bond or for exportation) which shall remain in customs custody for one year from the date of importation thereof, without all estimated duties and storage or other charges thereon having been paid, shall be considered unclaimed and abandoned to the Government and shall be appraised by the appraiser of merchandise and sold by the collector at public auction under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe * * *;

Whereas section 557 of the said act, as amended (46 Stat. 744; 52 Stat. 1087 and 1088; 19 U.S.C. 1557), provides in part as follows:

(a) Any merchandise subject to duty, with the exception of perishable articles and explosive substances other than firecrackers, may be entered for warehousing and be deposited in a bonded warehouse at the expense and risk of the owner, importer, or consignee. Such merchandise may be withdrawn, at any time within three years from the date of importation, for consumption upon payment of the duties and charges accruing thereon at the rate of duty imposed by law upon such merchandise at the date of withdrawal; or may be withdrawn for exportation or for transportation and exportation to a foreign country, * * * without the payment of duties thereon, or for transportation and rewarehousing at another port or elsewhere, or for transfer to another bonded warehouse at the same port; Provided, That the total period of time for which such merchandise may remain in bonded warehouse shall not exceed three years from the date of importation * * *;

Whereas section 559 of the said act, as amended (46 Stat. 744; 52 Stat. 1088; 19 U.S.C. 1559), provides in part as follows:

Merchandise upon which any duties or charges are unpaid, remaining in bonded warehouse beyond three years from the date of importation, shall be regarded as abandoned to the Government and shall be sold under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe, * * *;

Whereas section 318 of the said act (46 Stat. 696; 19 U.S.C. 1318) provides in part as follows:

Whenever the President shall be proclamation declare an emergency to exist by reason of a state of war, or otherwise, he may authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to extend during the continuance of such emergency the time herein prescribed for the performance of any act * * *;

and whereas by Proclamation No. 2914 of December 16, 1950, I declared the existence of a national emergency:

Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the foregoing provision of section 318 of the Tariff Act of 1930, do hereby authorize the Secretary of the Treasury, until the termination of the national emergency proclaimed on December 16, 1950, or until it shall be determined by the President and declared by his proclamation that such action is no longer necessary, whichever is earlier:

(1) To extend the one-year period prescribed in section 491, supra, as amended, for not more than one year from and after the expiration of such one-year period in any case in which such period has already expired or shall hereafter expire during the continuance of the said national emergency;

(2) To extend the three-year period prescribed in sections 557 and 559, supra, as amended, for not more than one year from and after the expiration of such three-year period in any case in which such period has already expired or shall hereafter expire during the continuance of the said national emergency; and

(3) To extend further the one-year period prescribed in section 491, supra, as amended, and the three-year period prescribed in sections 557 and 559, supra, as amended, for additional periods of not more than one year each from and after the expiration of the immediately preceding extension in any case in which such extension shall expire during the continuance of the said national emergency:

Provided, however, that in each and every case under numbered paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) above in which the merchandise is charged against an entry bond the Secretary of the Treasury shall require that the principal on such bond, in order to obtain the benefit of any extension which may be granted under the authority of this proclamation, shall furnish to the collector of customs at the port where the bond is on file either the agreement of the sureties on the bond to remain bound under the terms and conditions of the bond to the same extent as if no extension had been granted, or an additional bond with acceptable sureties to cover the period of extension; and that, in each and every case in which the merchandise remains charged against a carrier's bond the Secretary of the Treasury shall require that the principal on such bond shall agree to the extension and shall furnish to the collector of customs at the port where the charge was made the agreement of the sureties on the bond to remain bound under the terms and conditions of the bond to the same extent as if no extension had been granted; and

Provided further, that as a condition to the granting of any extension or further extension of the periods prescribed in sections 491, 557, and 559 of the Tariff Act of 1930, supra, as amended, under numbered paragraphs (1), (2), or (3) above the Secretary of the Treasury may require that there shall be furnished to the collector of customs in the district in which the warehouse is located, in connection with the application for such extension, the consent of the warehouse proprietor to such extension or, in the alternative, proof of payment of all charges or amounts due or owing to such warehouse proprietor for the storage or handling of the imported merchandise; and

Provided further, that the extensions of one year authorized by this proclamation shall not apply to any case in which the period sought to be extended expired prior to December 16, 1950, or in which the merchandise in question has been sold by the Government as abandoned.

This proclamation supersedes Proclamation No. 2599 of November 4, 1943, as amended by Proclamation No. 2712 of December 3, 1946, but it shall not be construed (1) as invalidating any action heretofore taken under the provisions of the said Proclamation No. 2599 or under the provisions of that proclamation as amended by the said Proclamation No. 2712, or (2) as imposing the conditions set forth in the second proviso above upon the granting of extensions for which applications are pending on the date of this proclamation.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this 12th day of October in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty-one and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-sixth.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

DEAN ACHESON,

Secretary of State.