---
kind: "section"
citation: "46 U.S.C. § 55315"
title: "46"
title_heading: "Shipping"
number: "55315"
heading: "Minimum tonnage"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/46/55315"
units:
  - "Subtitle V — Merchant Marine"
  - "Part D — Promotional Programs"
  - "Chapter 553 — Passenger and Cargo Preferences"
  - "Subchapter II — Export Transportation of Agricultural Commodities"
---

# §55315. Minimum tonnage

- (a) **Definition.—** In this section, the term “base period” means the 5-year period running from the sixth through the second prior [fiscal years](/usc/46/53201.md?p=6).
- (b) **Requirement.—** For each [fiscal year](/usc/46/53201.md?p=6), the minimum quantity of agricultural commodities to be exported under programs specified in [section 55314(b) of this title](/usc/46/55314.md?p=b) is the average of the tonnage exported under those programs during the base period, discarding the high and low years.
- (c) **Waivers.—** The President may waive the minimum quantity for a [fiscal year](/usc/46/53201.md?p=6) under this section if the President determines and reports to Congress, together with reasons, that the quantity cannot be used effectively for the purposes of those programs or, based on a certification by the [Secretary](/usc/46/53101.md?p=8) of Agriculture, that the commodities are not available for reasons that include the unavailability of funds.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 109–304, § 8(c), Oct. 6, 2006, 120 Stat. 1646; Pub. L. 112–141, div. F, title I, § 100124(c)(1), July 6, 2012, 126 Stat. 915.)

## Notes

| Historical and Revision Notes |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Revised<br>Section | Source (U.S. Code) | Source (Statutes at Large) |
| 55315 | 46 App.:1241g. | June 29, 1936, ch. 858, title IX, § 901c, as added Pub. L. 99–198, title XI, § 1142, Dec. 23, 1985, 99 Stat. 1493. |

In subsection (b), the words “For fiscal year 1986 and” are omitted as obsolete.

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

2012—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 112–141 substituted “specified in section 55314(b)” for “subject to section 55314”.