The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to prescribe rules and regulations for the declaration and entry of—

Merchandise, when—

(A) the aggregate value of the shipment does not exceed an amount specified by the Secretary by regulation, but not more than $2,500; or

(B) different commercial facilitation and risk considerations that may vary for different classes or kinds of merchandise or different classes of transactions may dictate;

Products of the United States, when the aggregate value of the shipment does not exceed such amounts as the Secretary may prescribe and the products are imported.

(A) for the purposes of repair or alteration prior to reexportation, or

(B) after having been either rejected or returned by the foreign purchaser to the United States for credit;

(3) Merchandise damaged on the voyage of importation, by fire or through marine casualty or any other cause, without fault on the part of the shipper;

(4) Merchandise recovered from a wrecked or stranded vessel;

(5) Household effects used abroad and personal effects, not imported in pursuance of a purchase or agreement for purchase and not intended for sale;

(6) Articles sent by persons in foreign countries as gifts to persons in the United States;

(7) Articles carried on the person or contained in the baggage of a person arriving in the United States;

(8) Tools of trade of a person arriving in the United States;

(9) Personal effects of citizens of the United States who have died in a foreign country;

(10) Merchandise within the provisions of sections 1465 [1] and 1466 of this title (relating to supplies, repairs, and equipment on vessels and railway cars) at the first port of arrival;

(11) Merchandise when in the opinion of the Secretary of the Treasury the value thereof cannot be declared; and

(12) Merchandise within the provisions of paragraph 1631 of section 1201 of this title.

The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to include in such rules and regulations any of the provisions of section 1484 or 1485 of this title (relating, respectively, to entry and to declaration of merchandise generally).

(June 17, 1930, ch. 497, title IV, § 498, 46 Stat. 728; Aug. 8, 1953, ch. 397, § 16(d), (e), 67 Stat. 517; Pub. L. 96–609, title II, § 202, Dec. 28, 1980, 94 Stat. 3561; Pub. L. 98–573, title II, § 206, Oct. 30, 1984, 98 Stat. 2975; Pub. L. 100–418, title I, § 1214(h)(5), Aug. 23, 1988, 102 Stat. 1157; Pub. L. 103–182, title VI, § 662, Dec. 8, 1993, 107 Stat. 2214.)