CLA-2 RR:CR:GC 962116 MGM
Port Director
U.S. Customs Service
10 Causeway St.
Ste. 603
Boston, MA 02222
Re: Protest 0401-98-100077; Svit Shoe Machinery Corp. Model 06160 P3 Beam Clicking Machine with Receding Beam; Bridge Cutting Machine
Dear Port Director:
This is our decision on protest 0401-98-100077, concerning your classification of the Svit Shoe Machinery Corp. Model 06160 P3 bridge cutting machine under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS).
FACTS:
The items at issue are two identical die cutting, or clicking, machines used in the production of footwear. A die is a device, usually of steel, which has a specific shape which it imparts to another material by impact. Hawley, The Condensed Chemical Dictionary (10th ed. 1981). The machine works as follows: layers of material are placed upon a cutting table, one or more dies are positioned upon the material, and the dies are struck with great force from above by a cutting beam causing them to cut through the material in a fashion similar to a cookie cutter.
An advertising brochure which describes the product states that “The machine is used for clicking parts of various shapes from felt, rubber, textile materials, artificial upper materials, and similar. It is suitable for clicking large-size cuttings stacked in more layers, eventually when using a number of clicking dies simultaneously.” A chart which describes the Svit line of shoemaking machines states that the Model 06160 P3 cutting machine is suitable for the production of cement lasted footwear, veldtschoen footwear, stitched footwear, injecting moulded footwear, vulcanized footwear, stifeners (counters) and toe puffs, insoles, and soles.
The merchandise was entered on November 25, 1997, and the entry was liquidated on February 6, 1998. A protest was timely filed on April 28, 1998.
ISSUE:
Whether the Model 06160 P3 cutting machine is machinery for making footwear of hides, skins or leather?
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
Merchandise imported into the U.S. is classified under the HTSUS. Tariff classification is governed by the principles set forth in the General Rules of Interpretation (GRIs) and, in the absence of special language or context which requires otherwise, by the Additional U.S. Rules of Interpretation. The GRIs and the Additional U.S. Rules of Interpretation are part of the HTSUS and are to be considered statutory provisions of law.
GRI 1 requires that classification be determined first according to the terms of the headings of the tariff schedule and any relative section or chapter notes and, unless otherwise required, according to the remaining GRIs taken in order. GRI 6 requires that the classification of goods in the subheadings of headings shall be determined according to the terms of those subheadings, any related subheading notes and mutatis mutandis, to the GRIs. In interpreting the HTSUS, the Explanatory Notes (ENs) of the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System may be utilized. The ENs, although not dispositive or legally binding, provide a commentary on the scope of each heading, and are generally indicative of the proper interpretation of the HTSUSA. See, T.D. 89 80, 54 Fed. Reg. 35127 (August 23, 1989).
The following headings are relevant to the classification of this product:
8453 Machinery for preparing, tanning or working hides, skins or leather or for making or repairing footwear or other articles of hides, skins or leather, other than sewing machines; parts thereof:
8453.20.00 Machinery for making or repairing footwear
* * * * * * * * * * * *
8479 Machines and mechanical appliances having individual functions, not specified or included elsewhere in this chapter; parts thereof:
Other machines and mechanical appliances:
8479.89 Other
Other
8479.89.97 Other
The protestant argues that the merchandise is properly classified in heading 8453, HTSUS, as machinery for making leather footwear. The ENs address the classification of a machine which can be used for materials other than leather:
It should be noted that some of the machines of this heading such as...cutting out...and even certain boot or shoe making machines, can be used for materials other than leather (e.g., cardboard, imitation leather or plastics); they remain, however, in this heading provided they are clearly designed to be used mainly for hides, skins or leather. EN 84.53 (II) (emphasis in original).
Here, there is no indication that the Model 06160 P3 cutting machine is designed to be used mainly for leather. The advertising brochure supplied by the protestant does not even list leather as one of the exemplars of materials which the machine cuts. Neither does the protestant point out any feature of the Model 06160 P3 cutting machine which makes it uniquely qualified for the cutting of leather. As this machine is not “clearly designed” to be used mainly for “hides, skins or leather,” it does not fall within heading 8453, HTSUS.
The entry for the merchandise was liquidated under heading 8479, HTSUS, the provision for “Machines and mechanical appliances having individual functions, not specified or included elsewhere in this chapter; parts thereof.” “Mechanical devices, with or without motors or other driving force, whose function can be performed distinctly from and independently of any other machine or appliance” are considered to have “individual functions.” EN 84.79. The Svit Model 06160 P3 cutting machine operates independently of other machinery, thus it has an “individual function.” In addition, it is not specified or included in any other heading of Chapter 84. It is therefore classified in heading 8479, HTSUS. As this machine is not described by any of the more specific provisions of this heading, it falls within the residual provision.
HOLDING:
The Svit Model 06160 P3 beam clicking machine (cutting machine) is classified in subheading 8479.89.97, HTSUS.
The protest should be DENIED. In accordance with Section 3A(11)(b) of Customs Directive 099 3550 065, dated August 4, 1993, Subject: Revised Protest Directive, you are to 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