CHAPTER 51
WOOL, FINE OR COARSE ANIMAL HAIR;
HORSEHAIR YARN AND WOVEN FABRIC
XI
51-1
Note
  • 1. Throughout the tariff schedule:
    • (a) "Wool" means the natural fiber grown by sheep or lambs;
    • (b) "Fine animal hair" means the hair of alpaca, llama, vicuna, camel (including dromedary), yak, Angora, Tibetan, Kashmir or similar goats (but not common goats), rabbit (including Angora rabbit), hare, beaver, nutria or muskrat; and
    • (c) "Coarse animal hair" means the hair of animals not mentioned above, excluding brush-making hair and bristles (heading 0502) and horsehair (heading 0511).
Additional U.S. Notes
  • 1. For the purposes of headings 5101, 5102, 5103 and 5104, regarding any package containing wool or fine animal hair subject to different rates of duty, notwithstanding the rates of duty shown, the column 1 rate of duty is the highest column 1 rate applicable to any part of the contents of the package comprising not less than 10 percent thereof by weight and the column 2 rate of duty is the highest column 2 rate applicable to any part of the contents of the package comprising not less than 10 percent thereof by weight.
  • 2. For the purposes of this chapter:
    • (a) The term "clean kg" in the rate columns means kilogram of clean yield;
    • (b) The term "clean yield," except for purposes of carbonized fibers, means the absolute clean content (i.e., all that portion of the merchandise which consists exclusively of wool or hair free of all vegetable and other foreign material, containing by weight 12 percent of moisture and 1.5 percent of material removable from the wool or hair by extraction with alcohol, and having an ash content of not over 0.5 percent by weight), less an allowance, equal by weight to 0.5 percent of the absolute clean content plus 60 percent of the vegetable matter present, but not exceeding 15 percent by weight of the absolute clean content, for wool or hair that would ordinarily be lost during commercial cleaning operations;
    • (c) For purposes of carbonized fibers, the term "clean yield" means in the condition as entered;
    • (d)
      • (i) The term "wool for special uses" means unimproved wool and other wool of whatever blood or origin not finer than 46s entered by a dealer, manufacturer or processor, and certified for use only in the manufacture of felt or knit boots, floor coverings, heavy fulled lumbermen's socks, press cloth, papermakers' felts or pressed felt for polishing plate and mirror glass;
      • (ii) Wool for special uses shall not be released from customs custody unless the dealer, manufacturer or processor files a bond to insure that any wool entered as wool for special uses shall be used only (except as provided below) in the manufacture of the articles enumerated in subparagraph (i) above;
      • (iii) A dealer, manufacturer or processor may be relieved of liability under his or her bond with respect to any wool entered as wool for special uses which is transferred in its imported or any other form to another dealer, manufacturer or processor who has filed a bond to insure that the merchandise so transferred shall be used only (except as provided below) in the manufacture of the articles enumerated in subparagraph (i) above;
      • (iv) When wool entered as wool for special uses is used, or transferred for use, otherwise than in the manufacture of the articles enumerated in subparagraph (i) above:
        • (A) the regular duties which would have been applicable to such wool in the condition as entered shall be paid by the dealer, manufacturer or processor whose bond is charged with the wool at the time of such use or transfer for such use, but such duties shall not be levied or collected on any waste or byproducts resulting from the usual course of manufacture of the articles enumerated in subparagraph (i) above or on any merchandise which is destroyed or exported;
        • (B) if prior to such use or transfer for such use there shall have been combined or mixed with such wool any other merchandise, the whole of the combination or mixture shall be regarded as being composed of wool entered as wool for special uses, unless the dealer, manufacturer or processor liable for the payment of the duties shall establish the quantity of bonded wool in such combination or mixture;
        • (C) every dealer, manufacturer or processor who has given a bond pursuant to the provisions for wool for special uses shall report any transfer or use of merchandise contrary to the terms of the bond, within 30 days after such transfer or use, to the district director of customs in whose district the bond is filed, and for failure to so report such dealer, manufacturer or processor shall be liable to a penalty (in addition to the duties provided for) equal to the value of the merchandise so transferred or used at the time and place of such transfer or use; and
        • (D) the clean yield of any wool shall be deemed to be 100 percent, unless the actual clean yield has been determined by suitable tests and such use or transfer for use occurs not later than 3 years after the date of entry of such wool;
    • (e) The term "unimproved wool" means Aleppo, Arabian, Bagdad, Black Spanish, Chinese, Cordova, Cyprus, Donskoi, East Indian, Ecuadorean, Egyptian, Georgian, Haslock, Iceland, Karakul, Kerry, Manchurian, Mongolian, Oporto, Persian, Pyrenean, Sardinian, Scotch Blackface, Sistan, Smyrna, Sudan, Syrian, Tibetan, Turkestan, Valparaiso or Welsh Mountain wool and similar wool not improved by the admixture of merino or English blood; and
    • (f) The standards for determining grades of wool shall be those which are established from time to time by the Secretary of Agriculture pursuant to law and which are in effect on the date of importation of the wool.

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