CLA-2:CO:R:C:G 085831 JAS

Horst F. Biernath
Bimex, Incorporated
3617 Shallowford Road
Atlanta, Georgia 30340-1073

RE: Rotary Cutting Blade

Dear Mr. Biernath:

In your letter of August 28, 1989, on behalf of Salem Industries, Inc., you inquire as to the tariff classification of blades from Taiwan for rotary cutting knives. Descriptive literature was submitted.

FACTS:

The article in question is a circular steel cutting blade. It is the rotary cutting portion of a hand-held device used in quilting and sewing applications to cut fabric. After importation, Salem will assemble the steel blade in a plastic housing with handle, and package it together with a plastic two-piece adjustable guide arm and steel wing nut in a cardboard backed blister pack.

Your broker tentatively advised you that the blades are classifiable under the provision for circular saw blades with working part of steel, in subheading 8202.31.0000, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Annotated (HTSUSA).

ISSUE:

Is the steel blade classifiable as a saw blade or under a provision(s) for knives with cutting blades?

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LAW AND ANALYSIS:

In accordance with General Rule of Interpretation (GRI) 1, for legal purposes, classification shall be determined according to the terms of the headings and any relative section or chapter notes. GRI 3(a) states that when goods are, prima facie, classifiable under two or more headings, the heading which provides the most specific description shall be preferred to headings providing a more general description.

Heading 8208 provides for knives and cutting blades, for machines or for mechanical appliances, and base metal parts thereof, while heading 8211 provides for knives with cutting blades, serrated or not, other than knives of heading 8208, and blades and other base metal parts thereof. Hand-held cutting devices of the type in issue here are not machines or mechanical appliances of the type covered by heading 8208. Under the authority of GRI 3(a), heading 8211 provides the most specific description for the cutting blades from among the headings under consideration.

HOLDING:

The circular cutting blades in question are provided for in heading 8211. They are classifiable under the provision for blades for knives having other than fixed blades, in subheading 8211.94.5000, HTSUSA, dutiable at the rate of 1 cent each plus 5.4 percent ad valorem.

Sincerely,

John Durant, Director
Commercial Rulings Division