October 4, 2006 CBP Bulletin Notice on Certain Acrylic Filament Tow
In the October 4, 2006 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (CBP Bulletin) (Vol. 40, No. 41), CBP published a notice proposing to revoke a classification ruling and treatment as follows:
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Proposed revocation of ruling; proposed revocation of treatment. CBP is proposing to revoke one ruling on the classification of certain acrylic filament tow. CBP is also proposing to revoke any treatment it has previously accorded to substantially identical transactions.
CBP states that any party who has received a contrary written ruling or decision on the merchandise that is subject to the proposed ruling, or any party involved with a substantially identical transaction, should advise CBP by November 3, 2006, the date that written comments on the proposed ruling are due. Furthermore, CBP states that an importer's failure to advise CBP of such rulings, decisions, or substantially identical transactions may raise issues of reasonable care on the part of the importer or its agent for importations subsequent to the effective date of the final decision in this notice.
In addition, CBP states that this notice covers any rulings on the subject merchandise that may exist but have not been specifically identified.
Acrylic filament tow. The merchandise is described as acrylic monofilament fiber, specifically "tow". This filament would not be sold in its current form, it would be carbonized to form carbon fiber and then used in products such as golf club shafts, bows and arrows, bicycle frames and aerospace applications. The article at issue consists of parallel filaments of uniform length equal to the length of the tow. The tow exceeds 2 meters in length (it is greater than 50,000 meters); it has fewer than 5 twists per meter (it is not twisted); it measures less than 67 decitex per filament (each filament is between 1.0 and 1.3 decitex); the tow cannot be stretched by more than twice its length (it cannot be stretched to more than 10% of its length); and the total measurement of the sample tow is more than 20,000 decitex (the total is between 24,000 and 31,000).
CBP is proposing to issue HQ 968128 in order to revoke NY L84817 and reclassify the subject merchandise under 5501.30.0000 (7.5%) as ''synthetic filament tow: acrylic or modacrylic'', rather than under 5402.49.9040 (8%), as ''acrylic monofilament yarn".
CBP states that NY L84817, which was obtained on behalf of Grafil Inc., provided very limited details about the merchandise at issue. Subsequently, Grafil Inc. requested and obtained another ruling, NY L89976, in which greater detail was provided. CBP had retained the sample from NY L84817, and determined that the sample for NY L89976 was identical to it. As a result of the additional information from Grafil, Inc. (obtained after issuance of NY L84817) and CBP's re-review of the sample, it was determined that the merchandise was incorrectly classified in NY L84817 and that the merchandise should be classified in accordance with NY L89976, as tow not yarn.
Therefore, under the authority of GRI 1, and Note 1 to Chapter 55, HTSUSA, CBP states that the product should be classified at 5501.30.0000, which provides for: ''Synthetic filament tow: Acrylic or modacrylic.''
proposed: 5501.30.0000, 7.5%; current: 5402.49.9040, 8%
October 4, 2006 CBP Bulletin (Vol. 40, No. 41) available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/toolbox/legal/bulletins_decisions/bulletins_2006/vol40_10042006_no41/