CLA-2 RR:CR:GC 961711 HMC
Port Director of Customs
4477 Woodson Rd.
St. Louis, MO 63134
RE: Protest 4503-97-100026; Carriage Bolts/Round Head Square Neck Bolts; Other Screws and Bolts
Dear Port Director:
This is our decision on Protest 4503-97-100026, filed against your classification of carriage bolts, also identified as round head square neck bolts. The 1997 entries under protest were liquidated on May 2, 1997, and this protest timely filed on July 29, 1997.
FACTS:
The merchandise under protest consists of fasteners, identified as carriage bolts or round head square neck bolts. They feature a circular head with a low rounded top surface, and a flat bearing with an integrally formed square neck or shoulder under the head. The shank, the portion of the fastener which lies between the head and the extreme point, is fully threaded.
The merchandise was entered under a provision for bolts and bolts and their nuts or washers entered and exported in the same shipment under subheading 7318.15.20 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). The entries were liquidated however under subheading 7318.15.50, HTSUS, as studs.
The 1997 HTSUS provisions under consideration are as follows:
7318 Screws, bolts, nuts, coach screws, screw hooks, rivets, cotters, cotter pins, washers (including spring washers) and similar articles, of iron or steel:
Threaded articles:
7318.15 Other screws and bolts, whether or not with their nuts or washers:
7318.15.20 Bolts and bolts and their nuts or washers entered or exported in the same shipment...0.4%
7318.15.50 Studs...2.8%
ISSUE:
Whether the fasteners in question are studs or bolts for tariff purposes.
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
Merchandise is classifiable under the HTSUS in accordance with the General Rules of Interpretation (GRIs). GRI 1 states in part that for legal purposes, classification shall be determined according to the terms of the headings and any relative section or chapter notes, and provided the headings or notes do not require otherwise, according to GRIs 2 through 6. GRI 6 states that the classification of goods in the subheadings of a heading shall be determined according to the terms of those subheadings and any related subheading notes and, mutatis mutandis, to the above rules, on the understanding that only subheadings at the same level are comparable. For the purposes of this rule, the relative section, chapter and subchapter notes also apply, unless the context otherwise requires.
There is no dispute that the carriage bolts are described by heading 7318, HTSUS. Protestant argues that the subject fasteners are classifiable as bolts because they meet the specifications of round head square neck bolts, provided in part C of the publication, FASTENER STANDARDS. Protestant states that the merchandise meets primary criteria for bolts, which include externally threaded fasteners that because of head design or other feature, are prevented from being turned during assembly, and can be tightened or released only by torquing a nut. You reclassified the merchandise as studs because the shank is fully threaded. Accordingly, we must determine whether the merchandise is classifiable as studs under subheading 7318.15.50, or as bolts under subheading 7318.15.20, HTSUS.
The Harmonized Commodity Description And Coding System Explanatory Notes (EN’s) constitute the official interpretation of the Harmonized System. While not legally binding on the contracting parties, and therefore not dispositive, the EN’s provide a commentary on the scope of each heading of the Harmonized System and are thus useful in ascertaining the classification of merchandise under the System. Customs believes the EN’s should always be consulted. See T.D. 89 80, 54 Fed. Reg. 35127, 35128 (Aug. 23, 1989). EN 73.18, at page 1116, states that
(A) SCREWS, BOLTS AND NUTS
Bolts and nuts (including bolt ends), screw studs and other screws for metal, whether or not threaded or tapped, screws for wood and coach screws are threaded (in the finished state) and are used to assemble or fasten goods so that they can readily be disassembled without damage.
Bolts and screws for metal are cylindrical in shape, with a close and only slightly inclined thread; they are rarely pointed, and may have slotted heads or heads adapted for tightening with a spanner or they may be recessed. A bolt is designed to engage in a nut, whereas screws for metal are more usually screwed into a hole tapped in the material to be fastened and are therefore generally threaded throughout their length whereas bolts usually have a part of the shank unthreaded.
The heading includes all types of fastening bolts and metal screws regardless of shape and use, including U bolts, bolt ends (i.e., cylindrical rods threaded at one end), screw studs (i.e., short rods threaded at both ends), and screw studding (i.e., rods threaded throughout).
Neither the Section nor the Chapter Notes provide a definition for bolts or studs, and the ENs only give examples of some type of studs. The Court of International Trade has held that the dictionary definition of the term “stud” encompasses a wide variety of items which do not necessarily share distinguishing characteristics. See HQ 956528, dated December 29, 1994, (citing Hafele America Co., Ltd. v. United States, Slip Op. 94-188 (Ct. Int’l Trade, decided December 12, 1994)) In the case S.I. Stud, Inc. v. United States, 17 C.I.T. 661 (1993), the Court found that it was “impelled to adopt the definition of the term ‘stud’ which most aptly fits the subject merchandise.” The Court provided various definitions of the term “stud” and determined that the fasteners in that case, headless long steel rods measuring about 12 feet in length, threaded their entire length and secured with a nut at each end, satisfied the definitions of “stud.” Similarly, the Court provided that a “bolt” for the purposes of design engineering is a rod, usually of metal, with a square, round, or hexagonal head at one end and a screw thread on the other, used to fasten objects together. The Court noted that there was a configurational difference between bolts and studs in that studs with no heads and nuts at both ends, can be tightened to deliver tremendous clamping force due to the absence of torsional or twisting stress in the threaded rod.
Customs has ruled that studs are a type of bolt, but distinguished from bolts by their intended service application. We note HQ 955744, dated May 20, 1994, which found that one distinguishing feature of studs is that studs are normally short rods or pins threaded on one or both ends, sometimes with heads on one end to allow them to be fixed in place, resulting in a protuberance to which other articles may be suspended or attached by a nut or other means. See also HQ 956528, which classified two fasteners, referred as wheel bolts, wheel hub bolts or U-bolts, as studs because they had longitudinal threads that anchored one end of the fastener, allowing the other end to form a threaded protuberance. In that ruling, Customs determined that the fact that fully or partially threaded rods may be studs is not conclusive with respect to headed fasteners like wheel bolts. Thus, the fact that the fasteners at issue here are threaded throughout their shank should not control in determining whether the carriage bolts are studs. There is no specific factor for finding when a bolt is a stud and this determination must be made on a case by case basis. Yet, one feature found to distinguish studs from bolts is that a stud is a rod with a threaded protuberance to which other articles attach by a nut or other means.
Protestant contends that the merchandise meet the specifications for round head square neck bolts of the Industrial Fastener Institute (IFI)’s publication, FASTENER STANDARDS. The publication states, at page C-36, that round head square neck bolts shall have a circular head with low rounded top surface and flat bearing surface and an integrally formed square neck under the head. Protestant provided a blueprint with the specifications of the subject fasteners and we find that the carriage bolts conform to the IFI standards. We further find that the configuration of the fasteners in this case closely conforms to the definition of bolts advanced by the Court and the ENs. The subject carriage bolts are not rods which resemble rods that provide a threaded protuberance for attaching other articles, and there is no evidence that the configuration of the merchandise conforms to rods with no heads and nuts at both ends that can be tightened to deliver tremendous clamping force due to the absence of torsional or twisting stress in the threaded rod. Therefore, it is Customs view that the fasteners in this instance are bolts of subheading 7318.15.20, HTSUS.
HOLDING:
The carriage bolt is classifiable under subheading 7318.15.20, HTSUS, as “Screws, bolts, nuts, coach screws, screw hooks, rivets, cotters, cotter pins, washers (including spring washers) and similar articles, of iron or steel: Threaded articles: Other screws and bolts, whether or not with their nuts or washers: Bolts and bolts and their nuts or washers entered or exported in the same shipment. The 1997 rate of duty is 0.4%.
This protest should be GRANTED. In accordance with Section 3A(11)(b) of Customs Directive 099 3550 065, dated August 4, 1993, Subject: Revised Protest Directive, you should mail this decision, together with the Customs Form 19, to the Protestant no later than 60 days from the date of this letter. Any reliquidation of the entry or entries in accordance with the decision must be accomplished prior to mailing the decision.
Sixty days from the date of the decision, the Office of Regulations and Rulings will make the decision available to Customs personnel, and to the public on the Customs Home Page on the World Wide Web at www.customs.ustreas.gov, by means of the Freedom of Information Act, and other methods of public distribution.
Sincerely,
John Durant, Director
Commercial Rulings Division