Executive Order 641

by President of the United States

The Consular Regulations of 1896 are hereby amended as follows:

The practice in regard to "personal appearance before consul," "original bills," "declaration of name of ship," shall be made uniform in the sense—

1. That the personal appearance before the consular officer shall be demanded only in exceptional cases, where special reasons require a personal explanation.
2. That the original bills are only to be requested in cases where invoices presented to the consular officer for authentication include goods of various kinds that have been purchased from different manufacturers at places more or less remote from the consulate and that these bills shall be returned after inspection by the consular officer.
3. That the declaration of the name of the ship in the invoice shall be dispensed with whenever the exporter at the time the invoice is presented for authentication is unable to name the ship.

Paragraph 678 of such regulations, as amended March 1, 1906, is further amended by striking out the words:

"Whenever the invoice is presented to be consulated in a country other than the one from which the merchandise is being directly exported to the United States."

And by inserting after the first sentence the following clause:

"As place, in which the merchandise was purchased, is to be considered the place where the contract was made, whenever this was done at the place where the exporter has his office."

So that the entire paragraph shall read as follows:

"678. Invoices of merchandise purchased for export to the United States must be produced for certification to the consul of the district at which the merchandise was purchased, or in the district in which it was manufactured, but as a rule consular officers shall not require the personal attendance at his office of the shipper, purchaser, manufacturer, owner, or his agent, for the purpose of making declarations to invoices, but he shall certify invoices sent to him through the mails or by messenger. As place, in which the merchandise was purchased, is to be considered the place where the contract was made, whenever this was done at the place where the exporter has his office. To conform to the statute which requires that merchandise shall be invoiced at the market value or wholesale price of such merchandise as bought and sold in usual wholesale quantities at the time of exportation to the United States, in the principal markets of the country whence imported, consuls will certify to invoices, the additional cost of transportation from the place of manufacture to the place of shipment."

Paragraph 681 of the Consular Regulations of 1896 relative to "swearing to the invoice" is hereby revoked.

Paragraph 674 of the Consular Regulations of 1896 is amended so that the statements provided for in Section 8 of the Customs Administrative Act are not to be required by consular officers except upon the request of the appraiser of the port, after entry of the goods.

Theodore Roosevelt.

The White House,

June 1, 1907.