CLA-2 OT: RR: CTF: FTM H293112 GaK
Jennifer Diaz
Diaz Trade Law, P.A.
12700 Biscayne Blvd., Suite #301
North Miami, FL 33181
RE: Affirmation of NY N252750; Classification of women’s guayabera style shirt-blouses; United States-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement (“PANTPA”) preferential tariff treatment eligibility
Dear Ms. Diaz:
This letter is in response to your request, dated July 10, 2014, for reconsideration of New York Ruling Letter (“NY”) N252750, which was issued to your client, Confecciones Comodoro, S.A. on May 23, 2014. In NY N252750, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) classified, among other items, women’s guayabera style shirt-blouses under heading 6211, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (“HTSUS”), which provides for “[t]rack suits, ski-suits and swimwear; other garments,” and denied preferential tariff treatment under the United States-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement (“PANTPA”). Only the guayabera style shirt-blouses are at issue herein.
In your reconsideration request, you assert that the guayabera style shirt-blouses should be classified under heading 6206, HTSUS, which provides for “[w]omen’s or girls’ blouses, shirts and shirt-blouses.” The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System Explanatory Note (“EN”) 62.06 provides, in pertinent part:
[t]his heading does not cover garments with pockets below the waist or with a ribbed waistband or other means of tightening at the bottom of the garment (emphasis in original).
You state that there is no clear definition of pockets “below the waist” and that it should not include pockets that start at or on the waist. In support of your argument, you submitted photos of models wearing various guayabera style shirt-blouses showing that the pockets start at or on the waist. In light of the reconsideration request, CBP has reviewed the two styles of garments at issue by placing them on mannequins of the sizes appropriate to the shirts. In both styles, the lower pockets started just below the waist. While the submitted photos may show that the pockets start at or on the waist of the models wearing the shirt-blouses, CBP must maintain consistency in examination of garments submitted for classification and cannot rely on photos of garments worn by different body types. Instead, CBP must rely on the mannequins to measure certain elements of the garment that would influence its classification. The mannequins used by CBP are standard sizes. Moreover, CBP considers whether any portion of the pocket is below the waist, consistent with the terms used in EN 62.06. If any part of the pocket is below the waist, regardless of where it begins, it is considered a pocket below the waist. Since the lower pockets are below the waist in the guayabera style shirt-blouses, they cannot be classified under heading 6206, HTSUS, pursuant to EN 62.06.
For all the aforementioned reasons, we find that the women’s guayabera style shirt-blouses are correctly classified under heading 6211, HTSUS. Since the classification of the shirt-blouses is unchanged, the shirt-blouses are not eligible for preferential tariff treatment under the PANTPA. Furthermore, subheading 9822.09.63, HTSUS, which provides the duty exemption for guayabera style shirts as provided in the PANTPA Article 3.5, is legal text that CBP administers, and as an administrative agency, CBP cannot comment on whether the inclusion in U.S. Note 41 of heading 6206, HTSUS, is a mistake. We therefore affirm NY N252750, dated May 23, 2014.
Sincerely,
Myles B. Harmon, Director
Commercial and Trade Facilitation Division