Newly Released CBP HQ Rulings for April 27
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated April 27 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):
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H314638: Country of origin of a Motor Assembly; Section 301 trade remedy; Marking
| Origin: Scenarios 1, 2, 3 and 4: Vietnam; Scenario 5: China. |
| Marking: Scenarios 1 and 2: Vietnam. Scenarios 3, 4 and 5: Mexico |
| Item: Motor assemblies, with five supply chain scenarios: 1) Vietnamese stator, Vietnamese rotor core, assembled in Vietnam; 2) Chinese rotor, Vietnamese stator, assembled in Vietnam; 3) Vietnamese rotor core, Vietnamese stator, assembled in Mexico; 4) Vietnamese rotor core, Vietnamese stator, assembled in Mexico; 5) Chinese rotor, Chinese stator, assembled in Mexico. |
| Reason: The assembly process in Mexico is minor. The rotor and stator give the motors their essential character. Of those two components, the stator is the more fundamental component of a motor. The assembly processes in Mexico meet the applicable 19 CFR 102 tariff shift rule. |
| Ruling Date: April 22, 2021 |
H315295: Country of origin of an Automotive Headrests; Section 301 trade remedy; Marking
| Origin: Mexico |
| Marking: Mexico or China, depending on production scenario |
| Item: Automotive headrests, assembled in Mexico from frames cores made of Chinese and Mexican parts, leather or PVC of Mexican or Chinese origin cut and sewn and Mexico, and stuffed in Mexico. |
| Reason: The assembly process in Mexico is a substantial transformation, in particular the cutting and sewing of the leather or PVC and the stuffing with padding. |
| Ruling Date: April 9, 2021 |
H302687: Application for Further Review of Protest number 2704-16-101531; Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells from the People’s Republic of China; Antidumping and Countervailing Duties; Tektrum Development Corporation
| Ruling: CBP properly reliquidated the entries. The entries had been filed under the wrong case number, and the actual producer/exporter combination did not receive its own AD rate and was subject to the China-wide rate. Although CBP did not identify the reliquidation as such on the liquidation notice it sent to the importer, the agency is only required to post notice, and not to specifically identify it as a reliquidation. |
| Issue: Whether CBP properly reliquidated entries that had deemed liquidated with a 13.94% at a much higher 238.95% AD duty rate. |
| Ruling Date: Feb. 22, 2021 |
H294087: Internal Advice; Classification of Bamboo Wood Flooring
| HTS: 4418.90.46, 3.2%, “Builders’ joinery and carpentry of wood, including cellular wood panels and assembled flooring panels; shingles and shakes: Other: Other.” |
| Item: Irregular, threshed strands of bamboo that have been agglomerated together with resin under heat and high pressure. The strands and resin are compressed into large blocks, or cants, and each flooring plank is cut from the block. In cross-section, there are no apparent strips, layers, or pieces, nor is there any distinct configuration of such. No two planks have the same configuration of strands. The planks are then profiled and finished for use as interior flooring panels. |
| Reason: The strands of bamboo that make up the flooring panels are compressed together, with no fitting or configuration, until all the air pockets and voids in the bamboo fibers are eliminated to create a cant. Assembled flooring panels are not manufactured by sawing planks from a cant; the individual pieces, strips, layers, cabochons, etc. are intentionally placed and glued together to form a flooring panel. The flooring panels at issue are not assembled but agglomerated. |
| Ruling Date: Feb. 23, 2021 |
H292051: Application for Further Review of Protest No. 1401-17-100571; Classification of rotary blowers
| HTS: 8414.59.65,2.3%, “Air or vacuum pumps, air or other gas compressors and fans; ventilating or recycling hoods incorporating a fan, whether or not fitted with filters; parts thereof: Fans: Other: Other: Other.” |
| Item: Stationary, rotary “compressors” with a rated motor power of 37.26 kilowatts and 80 horsepower. The maximum operating pressure for the blowers is 15 pounds per square inch gauge (“psig”), with a typical operating pressure of 6.9 psig. When operating at sea level where atmospheric pressure is 14.7 pounds per square inch (“psi”), the blowers produce a maximum pressure of 29.7 psi, with a typical operating pressure of 21.6 psi. |
| Reason: Machines with final operating pressures between 1 and 35 psi are considered to be “blowers” and should be classified as fans, rather than as air compressors. |
| Ruling Date: Feb. 16, 2021 |
H312647: Application for Further Review of Protest No. 1303-20-102258; tariff classification of Palmitic Acid 85%-DT80 (Beads)
| HTS: 3823.19.20, 2.3%, “Industrial monocarboxylic fatty acids; acid oils from refining; industrial fatty alcohols: Industrial monocarboxylic fatty acids; acid oils from refining: Other: Derived from coconut, palm-kernel or palm oil.” |
| Item: DT 80 Palmitic Acid with a palmitic acid content of 86.9%. The final DT 80 Palmitic Acid product is a beaded product containing a combination of fatty acids, including palmitic, lauric, myristic, stearic, oleic and linoleic acids. The final product is mixed with other ingredients after importation for feeding dairy cows. |
| Reason: Pursuant to note 1(a) to chapter 29, products of chapter 29 must be separate chemically defined compounds, which may or may not contain permissible additions mentioned in the chapter note. In addition, the Explanatory Note 29.15 excludes fatty acids of a purity of less than 90% (calculated on the weight of the dry product). Where the DT 80 Palmitic Acid consists of various fatty acids, including palmitic acid -- comprising 86.9% of the merchandise -- no single fatty acid component is over 90%. |
| Ruling Date: Feb. 16, 2021 |