[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 145 (Friday, October 7, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
         NORTH AMERICAN FREE-TRADE AGREEMENT IMPLEMENTATION ACT

  Mr. STEVENS. The State of Alaska has an interest in resolving a 
question which has arisen regarding implementation of a statutory 
change made last year in connection with NAFTA. Section 521 of the 
North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, Public Law No. 
103-182, amended 19 U.S.C. 58c(a)(5) to impose a $6.50 fee for the 
arrival of each passenger aboard a commercial vessel or aircraft from 
outside the customs territory of the United States. The reason for this 
change was to recover a portion of the revenue lost as a result of the 
elimination of a series of duties and tariffs under NAFTA.
  NAFTA imposed a new fee of $6.50 for cruise passengers arriving in 
the United States from the Caribbean, Mexico and Canada. Previously, 
such passengers were exempt from the Customs user fee. The law also 
raised the fee for both air and sea passengers arriving from other 
foreign destinations from $5.00 to $6.50.
  As a result of the wording of the NAFTA implementing legislation 
enacted by Congress last year, the Customs Service is claiming 
authority to collect the Customs user fee multiple times during the 
course of the same voyage. Substituting the phrase ``from outside the 
customs territory of the United States'' for the phrase ``from a place 
outside the United States'', had this unintended consequence.
  This point is particularly important to cruise passengers in Alaska 
where this interpretation could require the Customs user fee to be 
assessed more than once in a single voyage. For example, during the 
course of an Alaska voyage when the vessel may call in Ketchikan, 
Juneau, Valdez, Seward, and Sitka and may sail outside the customs 
territory of the United States between each of those Alaskan ports as 
part of one continuous cruise voyage, under the Customs Service 
interpretation the fee would be collected three, four, or even five 
times. This was not Congress' intention. Could the distinguished 
chairman of the Finance Committee please clarify if it was the intent 
of Congress to require multiple collection of the $6.50 Customs user 
fee?
  Mr. MOYNIHAN. The changes in the passenger processing fee that were 
approved in the NAFTA legislation were intended only to increase the 
fee temporarily and eliminate the existing exemptions from the fee, 
again temporarily. They were not intended to alter the manner or 
frequency of collection, with one exception.
  The NAFTA legislation replaced the phrase ``from a place outside the 
United States'' with the phrase ``from outside the customs territory of 
the United States'' to clarify that the passenger processing fee would 
be applicable to passengers on so-called ``cruises to nowhere.'' These 
cruises are not traditional cruises, but rather cruises that simply 
leave a U.S. port, venture outside the customs territory of the United 
States, and then return to the original port of departure.
  Mr. STEVENS. Do you believe Congress needs to enact a clarifying 
technical amendment in order to limit the collection of this fee to 
once per voyage?
  Mr. MOYNIHAN. If the Customs Service attempts to impose the fee 
multiple times in the course of a voyage between ports in the United 
States, I would be pleased to work with the senior Senator from Alaska, 
as always in a bipartisan fashion, to enact legislation during the next 
session to clarify that there would be a single collection to cover the 
costs incurred by Customs in processing arriving passengers.

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