CLA-2 OT:RR:CTF:TCM H266215 EGJ
C.J. Erickson, Esq.
Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, P.C.
1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036-6799
RE: Modification of HQ H063618; Classification of Sefar Tetex Mono V-17-2030-W 50 Rayl Woven Fabric
Dear Mr. Erickson:
Headquarters Ruling Letter (HQ) H063618, dated March 27, 2015, was a reconsideration of New York Ruling Letter (NY) N042709, dated November 25, 2008. This modification reflects a corrected application of the Explanatory Notes for heading 59.11 of the international Harmonized System. The rest of the decision remains the same.
This is in reply to your letter dated April 13, 2009, in which you requested reconsideration of New York Ruling Letter (NY) N042709, dated November 25, 2008, which pertains to the tariff classification of Sefar Tetex Mono V-17-2030-W 50 Rayl woven fabric (the woven fabric) under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). You submitted the reconsideration request on behalf of your client, Sefar Filtration, Inc. (Sefar). Although we responded to your request for a meeting by email on February 5, 2015, and on February 18, 2015, we did not receive any further comments from you on the matter. Therefore, our reconsideration of NY N042709 follows.
Pursuant to section 625(c)(1), Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1625(c)(1)), as amended by section 623 of Title VI, a notice of proposed modification was published on March 9, 2016, in the Customs Bulletin, Vol. 50, No. 10. No comments were received in response to this notice.
FACTS:
In NY N042709, CBP described the woven fabric as follows:
In various correspondences with this office concerning the classification of this product, you have described the item as follows; “…the slit bolting cloth consists of a polyethertherketone (PEEK)…woven fabric in 3-300 meter lengths, and can be made in various widths. It is geometrically accurate as to size and shape of meshes…The slit bolting cloth is used in sound filtration applications. It is sold in the sound suppression/sound attenuation market”…The samples submitted were all approximately 5/8th inch wide. The samples have selvages on both sides which your letter indicated were formed when the fabric was cut with heated knives … The use of this product, as stated in your October 13, 2008 request letter, was in the sound suppression/sound attenuation market. This particular product will be used as a component of a noise reduction panel in the inlet cowl of a jet engine. You indicated there was no other use for this material in the U.S.
While your ruling request stated that the woven fabric came in various widths, all of the submitted samples were 5/8th inch wide. As such, CBP only classified the submitted samples. Likewise, this ruling letter only addresses the 5/8th inch wide samples. We note that 5/8th inch is equivalent to approximately 1.5 centimeters.
Based upon the aforementioned facts, CBP classified the woven fabric in heading 5806, HTSUS, as a narrow woven fabric. However, you assert that it is properly classified in heading 5911, HTSUS, as a textile product for technical uses. For support, you state that the original requester did not list all the uses for the woven fabric. Your letter includes the following list of uses: as a rectangular patch for space suits, as part of an automotive filter pump, as part of a gasket, as part of a panel used during the manufacture of fiberboard liner for industrial transformers, as part of a strainer bag that filters high temperature oil for re-use in food applications, as part of a panel used to produce cellulose triacetate and as part of a panel used to produce purified terephthalic acid.
ISSUE:
Is the woven fabric classified as a narrow woven fabric of subheading 5806.32, HTSUS, or as bolting cloth of subheading 5911.20, HTSUS?
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
Classification under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) is made in accordance with the General Rules of Interpretation (GRI). 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 HTSUS provisions at issue provide, in pertinent part, as follows:
5806 Narrow woven fabrics, other than goods of heading 5807…:
Other woven fabrics:
5806.32 Of man-made fibers:
* * *
5911 Textile products and articles, for technical uses, specified in note 7 to this chapter:
5911.20 Bolting cloth, whether or not made up:
* * *
Note 5(a) to Chapter 58 provides as follows:
For the purposes of heading 5806, the expression “narrow woven fabrics” means:
(a) Woven fabrics of a width not exceeding 30 cm, whether woven as such or cut from wider pieces, provided with selvages (woven, gummed or otherwise made) on both edges;
* * *
Note 7 to Chapter 59 provides as follows:
(a) Textile products in the piece, cut to length or simply cut to rectangular (including square) shape (other than those having the character of the products of headings 5908 to 5910), the following only:
(i) Textile fabrics, felt and felt-lined woven fabrics, coated, covered or laminated with rubber, leather or other material, of a kind used for card clothing, and similar fabrics of a kind used for other technical purposes;
(ii) Bolting cloth;
(iii) Straining cloth of a kind used in oil presses or the like, of textile material or of human hair;
(iv) Flat woven textile fabric with multiple warp or weft, whether or not felted, impregnated or coated, of a kind used in machinery or for other technical purposes;
(v) Textile fabric reinforced with metal, of a kind used for technical purposes;
(vi) Cords, braids and the like, whether or not coated, impregnated or reinforced with metal, of a kind used in industry as packing or lubricating metals;
(b) Textile articles (other than those of headings 5908 to 5910) of a kind used for technical purposes (for example, textile fabrics and felts, endless or fitted with linking devices, of a kind used in papermaking or similar machines (for example, for pulp or asbestos-cement), gaskets, washers, polishing discs and other machinery parts).
* * *
The Explanatory Notes (EN) to the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System represent the official interpretation of the tariff at the international level. While neither legally binding nor dispositive, the ENs provide a commentary on the scope of each heading of the HTSUS and are generally indicative of the proper interpretation of these headings. See T.D. 89-80, 54 Fed. Reg. 35127, 35128 (August 23, 1989).
EN 58.06(A)(2) describes narrow woven fabric as follows:
Strips of a width not exceeding 30 cm, cut (or slit) from wider pieces of warp and weft fabric (whether cut (or slit) longitudinally or on the cross) and provided with false selvedges on both edges, or a normal woven selvedge on one edge and a false selvedge on the other. False selvedges are designed to prevent unravelling of a piece of cut (or slit) fabric and may, for example, consist of a row of gauze stitches woven into the wider fabric before cutting (or slitting), of a simple hem, or they may be produced by gumming the edges of strips, or by fusing the edges in the case of certain ribbons of man made fibres. They may also be created when a fabric is treated before it is cut into strips in a manner that prevents the edges of those strips from unravelling. No demarcation between the narrow fabric and its false selvedges need be evident in that case. Strips cut (or slit) from fabric but not provided with a selvedge, either real or false, on each edge, are excluded from this heading and classified with ordinary woven fabrics.
* * *
EN 59.11(A)(2) describes bolting cloth as follows:
Bolting cloths. These are porous fabrics (for example, with a gauze, leno or plain weave), geometrically accurate as to size and shape (usually square) of the meshes, which must not be deformed by use. They are mainly used for sifting (e.g., flour, abrasive powders, powdered plastics, cattle food), filtering or for screen printing. Bolting cloths are generally made of hard twisted undischarged silk yarn or of synthetic filament yarn.
* * *
Heading 5911, HTSUS, covers textile products and articles for technical uses which are specified in Note 7 to Chapter 59. Only those textile products described in Note 7 are classifiable in Heading 5911, HTSUS. You assert that the instant woven fabric is bolting cloth, which is listed in Note 7(a)(2). For support, you cite to EN 59.11, which states that bolting cloth must be porous, geometrically accurate as to size and shape of the meshes, and that bolting cloth cannot be deformed by use. Further, you state that the instant woven fabric is uncoated and consists of synthetic filament yarn. You state that the instant woven fabric is physically identical to Sefar item 3B17-0850-158-00, which was classified in subheading 5911.20, HTSUS, in NY N025649, dated May 2, 2008. For all of these reasons, you assert that the instant woven fabric is classifiable as bolting cloth of subheading 5911.20, HTSUS.
In Headquarters Ruling Letter (HQ) HQ 950733, dated December 28, 1993, we set forth the following dictionary definitions of the terms “bolt” and “bolting cloth”:
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, The Century Company (1911): bolt1 vt 1: To sift or pass through a sieve or bolter so as to separate the coarser from the finer particles, as bran from flour; sift out: as, to bolt meal; to bolt out the bran; bolt2 n. 1.: A sieve; a machine for sifting flour; bolting-cloth n.: A cloth for bolting or sifting; a linen, silk, or hair cloth, of which bolters are made for sifting meal, etc. The finest and most expensive silk fabric made is bolting-cloth, for the use of millers, woven almost altogether in Switzerland.
Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary of the English Language, (1928): bolting, n. 1: The act or process of sifting, usually in a mill or machine; b. cloth 1: A fabric, usually of unsized silk, for separating the various products of a flouring mill.
The Wellington Sears Handbook of Industrial Textiles, Ernest R. Kaswell (1963): bolting cloth: Light weight, finely woven silk and nylon bolting cloths made in precise mesh sizes are extensively used industrially for sifting and screening purposes. These extremely uniform filament yarn constructions in leno weaves are manufactured principally in Switzerland on special looms, requiring a high degree of skill on the part of the operator to achieve weaving perfection.
Bolting cloths are designated by the number of interstices or openings per linear inch, in the same manner as fine wire screening. For example, a 200 mesh bolting cloth has 200 openings per inch in both the warp and filling directions. The size of the openings must also be specified, as yarns of different deniers provide different size interstices for a given mesh cloth...
Silk bolting cloths are generally used for dry sifting processes, with the filament nylon cloths preferred for wet screening operations such as those employed in starch and flour manufacturing. Both types of fabrics are also widely used by the textile industry in screen printing.
Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster (1986): bolt 1: to sift (as meal or flour) usu. through fine-meshed cloth; also: to refine and purify (as meal or flour) through any process; bolting cloth: a firm fabric now usu. of silk woven in various mesh sizes for bolting (as flour) or for use in screen printing, needlework, or photographic enlargements.
Fairchild's Dictionary of Textiles: bolting cloth: A plain weave fabric originally of silk with a fine, uniform mesh; the fabric is woven in the gum and has a high number of threads per inch. The standard width is 40 inches. Fine mesh cotton muslin is also employed. For a time, filament yarn of Vinyon, a copolymer of vinyl acetate and vinyl chloride was used, but when production of this yarn ceased, other synthetic yarns were used. Uses: sifting flour in flour mills and screen printing. Sometimes called banderoles.
Hence, by definition, the bolting cloth of Note 7(a)(ii) to Chapter 59 is not just a porous material. It is an article that, although made only of textile fabric, has a mesh that is geometrically accurate as to size and shape, and is used in certain limited ways. According to the ENs, bolting cloth usually has a square mesh. Even if the instant woven fabric has some of the characteristics of bolting cloth, we note that it does not have the same uses as bolting cloth.
CBP has only issued four rulings which classify merchandise under subheading 5911.20, HTSUS, as bolting cloth. In all of those cases, the merchandise was used for sifting, sieving or screen-printing. See HQ 950733 (filtration medium for blood purification), NY 896117, dated April 7, 1994 (screen-printing), NY 815642, dated October 10, 1995 (screen-printing), and NY N025649, dated May 2, 2008 (sifting/filtering/screening). In NY N025649, the size and shape of the cloth is not stated, but unlike the fabric in NY N025649, your ruling request did not mention any use of the instant woven fabric for sifting, sieving or screen-printing.
In HQ 961537, dated November 21, 2000, CBP examined mesh woven fabric used on test strips for a portable blood glucose monitoring system. That requester also asserted that its woven fabric was classifiable as bolting cloth because it shared many of the same physical characteristics of bolting cloth. Like bolting cloth, the mesh woven fabric was made up of synthetic filament yarn, it was porous, and it was designed to prevent deformation by use. However, as the mesh woven fabric was not used for sifting, sieving, or screen printing, CBP determined that it could not be classified as bolting cloth. Similarly, the instant woven fabric is not used for sifting, sieving or screen-printing. As such, it cannot be classified as bolting cloth under heading 5911, HTSUS.
In NY N042709, CBP classified the instant woven fabric as narrow woven fabric of heading 5806, HTSUS. Note 5(a) to Chapter 58 states that narrow woven fabrics cover woven fabrics of a width not exceeding 30 cm, which have selvages (woven, gummed or otherwise made) on both edges. The instant woven fabric is less than 30 cm wide, and it has selvages formed by cutting with a hot knife to prevent it from unraveling. As it meets the definition of a narrow woven fabric, we find that the instant merchandise is properly classified under heading 5806, HTSUS.
HOLDING:
By application of GRIs 1 (Note 7(a)(ii) to Chapter 59 and Note 5(a) to Chapter 58) and 6, Sefar Tetex Mono V-17-2030-W 50 Rayl woven fabric, in a width not exceeding 30 cm and having selvages on both sides, is classified under subheading 5806.32.20, HTSUS, which provides, in pertinent part, for “Narrow woven fabrics, other than goods of heading 5807…: Other woven fabrics: Of man-made fibers: Other.” The 2015 column one, general rate of duty is 6.2 percent ad valorem.
Duty rates are provided for convenience only and are subject to change. The text of the most recent HTSUS and the accompanying duty rates are provided on the World Wide Web at www.usitc.gov.
EFFECT ON OTHER RULINGS:
NY N042709, dated November 25, 2008, is hereby affirmed.
HQ H063618, dated March 27, 2015, is hereby modified.
Sincerely,
Myles B. Harmon, Director
Commercial and Trade Facilitation Division