CLA-2 RR:CR:GC 966672 DSS
Port Director
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
198 West Service Road
Champlain, NY 12919
RE: Internal Advice 03/015; metal tool top chests and side cabinets
Dear Port Director:
This is in response to your memorandum dated July 9, 2003, addressed to the Customs Information Exchange regarding Internal Advice Request 03/015. This is in reference to a letter in which Miller and Chevalier, on behalf of The Stanley Works (importer), requests internal advice on the classification of various metal tool top chests and side cabinets under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). The Chief, Metals and Machinery Branch, National Commodity Specialist Division (NCSD) forwarded your memorandum and an accompanying NCSD memorandum dated August 14, 2003 to our office.
FACTS:
The articles at issue are described as metal tool top chests and side cabinets to be attached to tool cabinets. They are imported separately from the tool cabinets. The top chests may be mounted on top of the base tool cabinet and the side cabinets may be attached to the sides of the base tool cabinet. You seek clarification of several models of top boxes (models MB2100A, MB2150, MB2160, MB4150, MB5170J, MB9000, J44103 and J45008) and side cabinets (MB5290 and MB2270).
The top chests range in size from 15 inches to 22 7/8 inches in height, from 26 inches to 4 ½ inches in width and from 12 ½ to 18 inches in depth. They range in weight from 58 to 175 pounds, empty. The side cabinets range in size from 28 1/4 to 29 inches in height, from 15 1/4 inches to 14 7/8 inches in width and from 16 15/16 inches to 18 inches in depth. They range in weight from 70 pounds to 78 pounds, empty. Some of the top boxes have small handles on the sides, while the larger ones lack handles.
The instant side cabinets are designed to be bolted onto the base storage cabinet. They are sold with mounting hardware (i.e., bolts) and instructions for assembling them onto the base unit. The larger models of the top chests are designed to be bolted onto the base tool cabinets; the smaller models are designed to be bolted onto an intermediate chest which rests on the base tool cabinet.
ISSUE:
Whether the instant tool top chests and side cabinets are classified as other articles of iron or steel of heading 7326, HTSUS, or as other articles of furniture under heading 9403, HTSUS.
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
Classification under the HTSUS is made in accordance with the General Rules of Interpretation (GRIs). GRI 1 provides that the classification of goods shall be determined according to the terms of the headings of the tariff schedule and any relative Section or Chapter Notes. In the event that the goods cannot be classified solely on the basis of GRI 1, and if the headings and legal notes do not otherwise require, the remaining GRIs may then be applied.
The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System Explanatory Notes (ENs) constitute the official interpretation of the Harmonized System at the international level. While not legally binding, the ENs provide a commentary on the scope of each heading of the HTSUS and are thus useful in ascertaining the classification of merchandise under the System. The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (Customs) believes the ENs should always be consulted. See T.D. 89-90, 54 Fed. Reg. 35127, 35128 (August 23, 1989).
The HTSUS provisions under consideration are as follows:
Other articles of iron and steel:
7326.90 Other:
Other:
Other:
7326.90.85 Other
* * * *
Other furniture and parts thereof:
9403.20.00 Other metal furniture
The importer claims that the tool top chests and side cabinets are classified in heading 9403, HTSUS, as other articles of furniture. Steel tool boxes that are not specially fitted to hold the tools are usually classified in subheading 7326.90.85, HTSUS, as steel tool boxes. See HQ 087115, dated August 31, 1990; HQ 082064, dated March 16, 1989; HQ 082194, dated November 20, 1989.
The ENs to Chapter 94 provide in relevant part:
For the purposes of this Chapter, the term “furniture” means: . . .
(B) The following:
(i) Cupboards, bookcases, other shelved furniture and unit furniture, designed to be hung, to be fixed to the wall or to stand one on the other or side by side, for holding various objects or articles (books, crockery, kitchen utensils, glassware, linen, medicaments, toilet articles, radio or television receivers, ornaments, etc.) and separately presented elements of unit furniture [emphasis added].
The notes further state that: “Headings 94.01 to 94.03 cover articles of any material . . . . Such furniture remains in these headings whether or not stuffed or covered . . . or on castors, etc” (emphasis in original).
Note 2 to Chapter 94, HTSUS, provides as follows: The articles (other than parts) referred to in headings 9401 to 9403 are to be classified in those headings only if they are designed for placing on the floor or ground.
The following are, however, to be classified in the above-mentioned headings even if they are designed to be hung, to be fixed to the wall or to stand one on the other:
(a) Cupboards, bookcases, other shelved furniture and unit furniture; (b) Seats and beds.
The legal notes and heading texts, as well as the ENs, for chapter 94, and heading 9403, HTSUS, do not provide a definition of the term “unit furniture.” In the absence of such guidance, tariff terms may be construed in accordance with their common and commercial meanings. Nippon Kogasku (USA), Inc., v. United States, 69 CCPA 89, 673 F.2d 380 (1982). Common and commercial meaning may be determined by consulting dictionaries, lexicons, scientific authorities and other reliable resource materials. C.J. Tower & Sons v. United States, 69 CCPA 128, 673 F.2d 1268 (1982).
A search of relevant sources indicates that the term “unit furniture” is similar in meaning to the term “modular furniture,” in which different elements of furniture are designed and intended to be used to create one unit. For example, one unit could consist of a base floor cabinet with a hutch designed to rest on top. Such furniture is clearly designed to be used together, including directions for attaching the furniture together and advertisements showing the furniture functioning as a unit.
It is our determination that the instant side cabinets and top chests are “other furniture” within the meaning of heading 9403, HTSUS, and are “unit furniture” within the meaning of Note 2 to Chapter 94. Therefore, they are classified in subheading 9403.20.00, HTSUS. This determination is consistent with HQ 087115, dated August 31, 1990. In HQ 087115, where we classified in relevant part a steel tool cabinet on casters in subheading 9403.20.00, HTSUS, we stated:
The [ENs] to Chapter 94 indicate that for the purposes of this chapter, the term ‘furniture’ means:
Any ‘movable’ articles . . . which have the essential characteristic that they are constructed for placing on the floor or ground, and which are used, mainly with a utilitarian purpose, to equip private dwellings . . . offices . . . .
As the subject article stores tools within the home or office, is floor standing with casters and contains shelves, it is classifiable as other furniture in heading 9403.
In this instance, the top tool chests and side cabinets are designed to be placed on top of the base cabinet unit (top chest) or hung on the sides of the base cabinets (side cabinets) to store tools. Although the side cabinets can also be equipped to stand on coasters as stand-alone models in their own right, the information provided indicates that the side cabinets are primarily intended to be used in conjunction with the base cabinet. Therefore, whether imported with coasters or without, the side cabinets are pieces of unit furniture and are classified under subheading 9403.20.00, HTSUS. Similarly, information supplied by the importer indicates that these top chests are designed to be bolted onto an intermediate chest, which rests on the base tool cabinet, or the tool cabinet itself.
Customs has classified other tool boxes under heading 7326, HTSUS. In HQ 087115, dated August 31, 1990, we classified several types of containers for tools in different tariff headings. We classified a two-drawer tool chest base that could fit on tool cabinets under heading 7326, HTSUS, noting that the EN to heading 7326 included tool boxes as an exemplar of the articles classified therein. See also HQ 082064, dated March 16, 1989 and HQ 082194, dated November 20, 1989, which classify tool boxes that could rest on tool cabinets under heading 7326, HTSUS.
Unlike the tool boxes of these other rulings, however, the instant top tool chests have the capability to be bolted into the base tool cabinet. Moreover, the instant top tool chests are larger and heavier than the tool boxes classified in heading 7326, HTSUS. Also, the fact that information provided indicates that the articles are intended to function with the base cabinet distinguishes them from tool boxes. The instant top tool chests and side cabinets are substantial articles designed to equip a garage, designed to function as a unit (with a base cabinet) and are classifiable as furniture under heading 9403, HTSUS. We determine that the instant top chests and side cabinets are separately presented elements of unit furniture.
HOLDING:
Under the authority of GRI 1, the top tool chests and side cabinets are provided for in heading 9403, HTSUS. They are classified in subheading 9403.20.00, HTSUS, which provides for, “Other furniture and parts thereof: Other metal furniture.”
This decision should be mailed by your office to the internal advice requestor no later than 60 days from the date of this letter. On that date, the Office of Regulations and Rulings will make the decision available to Customs personnel, and to the public on the Customs and Border Protection Home Page on the World Wide Web at www.cbp.gov, by means of the Freedom of Information Act, and other methods of public distribution.
Sincerely,
/s/
Myles B. Harmon
Director,
Commercial Rulings Division