21 USC § 617 - Clearance prohibited to vessel carrying meat for export without inspector’s certificate

---
identifier: "/us/usc/t21/s617"
source: "usc"
legal_status: "official_prima_facie"
title: "21 USC § 617 - Clearance prohibited to vessel carrying meat for export without inspector’s certificate"
title_number: 21
title_name: "FOOD AND DRUGS"
section_number: "617"
section_name: "Clearance prohibited to vessel carrying meat for export without inspector’s certificate"
chapter_number: 12
chapter_name: "MEAT INSPECTION"
subchapter_number: "I"
subchapter_name: "INSPECTION REQUIREMENTS; ADULTERATION AND MISBRANDING"
positive_law: false
currency: "119-84"
last_updated: "2026-04-17"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
source_credit: "(Mar. 4, 1907, ch. 2907, title I, § 17, formerly 15th par., 34 Stat. 1263; renumbered § 17 and amended Pub. L. 90–201, §§ 1, 3(b), 12(a), (g), Dec. 15, 1967, 81 Stat. 584, 588, 592; Pub. L. 109–97, title VII, § 798[(a)](1), Nov. 10, 2005, 119 Stat. 2166.)"
---


# § 617. Clearance prohibited to vessel carrying meat for export without inspector’s certificate

No clearance shall be given to any vessel having on board any fresh, salted, canned, corned, or packed beef, mutton, pork, goat or equine meat for export to and sale in a foreign country from any port in the United States, until the owner or shipper thereof shall obtain from an inspector appointed under the provisions of this chapter a certificate that the said amenable species were sound and healthy at the time of inspection, and that their meat is sound and wholesome, unless the Secretary shall have waived the requirements of such certificate for the country to which said amenable species or meats are to be exported.

---

**Source Credit**: (Mar. 4, 1907, ch. 2907, title I, § 17, formerly 15th par., 34 Stat. 1263; renumbered § 17 and amended Pub. L. 90–201, §§ 1, 3(b), 12(a), (g), Dec. 15, 1967, 81 Stat. 584, 588, 592; Pub. L. 109–97, title VII, § 798[(a)](1), Nov. 10, 2005, 119 Stat. 2166.)

## Editorial Notes

### Codification

Section was formerly classified to .

### Amendments

2005— substituted “amenable species” for “cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, and other equines” in two places.

1967—, §§ 3(b), 12(a), (g), struck out “of Agriculture” after “Secretary”, included horses, mules, and other equines in the list of animals, and substituted “goat or equine meat” for “or goat meat, being the meat of animals killed after , or except as hereinbefore provided”, respectively.

## Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date of 2005 Amendment

Amendment by  effective the day after 120 days after , see , set out as a note under .

### Effective Date of 1967 Amendment

Amendment by  effective , except that with respect to equines (other than horses) and their carcasses and parts thereof, meat, and meat food products thereof, amendment effective upon expiration of sixty days after , see , set out as an Effective Date note under .