15 U.S.C. § 73 — Agreements involving restrictions in favor of imported goods

submitted 110 years ago by ch. 463 to r/title-15-COMMERCE-AND-TRADE · 224 words · no verdicts yet

in plain englishAI-generated · not legal advice

If someone imports goods from another country under a deal that stops them or someone else in the US from buying similar goods elsewhere, the US charges double the normal tariff on those goods. A foreign producer can still set up one official US sales agent. But if that agent also imposes the no-competing-goods rule on its own customers, the double tariff still applies.

This section targets import deals that come with a string attached: a promise that the importer, or someone else in the U.S., won't buy or deal in goods from any other supplier. - If a foreign-made article is imported under such an agreement, understanding, or condition, the U.S. charges a special extra duty. That extra duty equals double the regular duty already owed on the article. - The proviso creates an exception: this rule does not stop a foreign producer from setting up one exclusive sales agency in the U.S. for its own products. It also does not stop that exclusive agent from agreeing not to buy or deal in goods from any other producer. - But that exception has a limit. If the foreign producer requires the agent — or if the agent and the producer agree — that the agent must impose this same "don't deal with others" condition on the people the agent sells to in the U.S., then the exception does not apply. In that case, the double duty is charged after all.

the actual law source: uscode.house.gov ↗public domain

If any article produced in a foreign country is imported into the United States under any agreement, understanding, or condition that the importer thereof or any other person in the United States shall not use, purchase, or deal in, or shall be restricted in his using, purchasing, or dealing in, the articles of any other person, there shall be levied, collected, and paid thereon, in addition to the duty otherwise imposed by law, a special duty equal to double the amount of such duty: Provided, That the above shall not be interpreted to prevent the establishing in this country on the part of a foreign producer of an exclusive agency for the sale in the United States of the products of said foreign producer or merchant, nor to prevent such exclusive agent from agreeing not to use, purchase, or deal in the article of any other person, but this proviso shall not be construed to exempt from the provisions of this section any article imported by such exclusive agent if such agent is required by the foreign producer or if it is agreed between such agent and such foreign producer that any agreement, understanding or condition set out in this section shall be imposed by such agent upon the sale or other disposition of such article to any person in the United States.

Source credit: (Sept. 8, 1916, ch. 463, title VIII, § 802, 39 Stat. 799.)

history & why it existsrecord from the source credit

1916Enacted · Act of Sept. 8, 1916, ch. 463 · 39 Stat. 799

A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by ch. 463 on 1916-09-08.

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