CLA-2 RR:CR:GC 962308 JAS
Port Director of Customs
40 S. Gay Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
RE: Protest 1303-98-100134; Screw Spike, Track Bolt
Dear Port Director:
This is our decision on Protest 1303-98-100134, filed against your classification under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), of screw spikes produced in China. The entries under protest were liquidated on April 17, 1998, and this protest timely filed on July 15, 1998.
FACTS:
The threaded fastener in issue is variously identified on commercial invoices both as a screw spike and as a track bolt and nut. The Customs Form 7501 identifies a track bolt. A schematic, together with a submitted sample, depict a fastener of iron or steel, 7 1/2 inches long. It has a 1-inch body beneath a square head 3/4 inch on a side, a 4 1/2 inch shank with 2 threads per inch, and a chamfered point. These fasteners are of a type used by railroads to fasten track to the ties on a railbed.
The protestant characterizes these fasteners as track bolts and entered them under a provision of heading 7318, HTSUS, for bolts. The import specialist determined that the fasteners functioned in the manner of coach screws and liquidated the entries in the appropriate provision of heading 7318. Protestant maintains that product literature identifies these articles as screw spikes and they have hot rolled threads making them suitable for use only on wooden ties. Protestant notes that both screw spikes and coach screws have hot forged heads and are used
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on railroads. However, he notes that coach screws have cold rolled threads which makes them suitable for use only in concrete ties in new installations.
The provisions under consideration are as follows:
7318 Screws, bolts, nuts... and similar articles, of iron or steel:
Threaded articles:
7318.11.00 Coach screws
7318.50 Other screws and bolts, whether or not with their nuts and washers:
7318.15.20 Bolts and bolts and their nuts or washers entered or exported in the same shipment
ISSUE:
Whether screw spikes, as described, are screws for tariff purposes.
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
Under General Rule of Interpretation (GRI) 1, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), goods are to be classified 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.
The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System Explanatory Notes (ENs) constitute the official interpretation of the Harmonized System. While not legally binding, the ENs 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 ENs should always be consulted. See T.D. 89-80, 54 Fed. Reg. 35127, 35128 (Aug. 23, 1989).
Relevant heading 73.18 ENs at p. 1117 state, in part, that screw spikes are also referred to as coach screws, and are large wood screws with square or hexagonal unslotted heads. They are used to fix railway lines to the sleepers and to assemble rafters
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and similar heavy woodwork. The submitted sample is within this description.
In addition, where not defined in an HTSUS Section or Chapter legal note, or not clearly identified in an EN, tariff terms are defined according to their common and commercial meanings, which are presumed to the same. The terms bolt and screw are not so defined, nor are they sufficiently described or identified in the ENs. In determining whether a particular fastener is within the common meaning of these terms, Customs will ordinarily accept a dimensional standard specified by or on behalf of the industry in which the fastener is used. However, where no such standard exists, or none is offered, Customs relies on the more general specification for differentiating bolts from screws found in American National Standards Institute/American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ANSI/ASME) standard B18.2.1 (1981). This standard sets forth, in order, primary and secondary criteria against which individual fasteners can be measured. The standard regards as a screw an[y] externally threaded fastener capable of being inserted into holes in assembled parts, of mating with a preformed internal thread or forming its own thread, and of being tightened or released by torquing the head. Specifically, primary criteria 5.2 states “An externally threaded fastener, which has a thread form which prohibits assembly with a nut having a straight thread of multiple pitch length, is a screw.” The submitted sample has a coarse, slanted pitch of 1/4 inch between adjacent screw threads. This is a thread form which, in our opinion, prohibits assembly with a nut. Neither the cited ENs nor standard B18.2.1 make any distinction between hot rolled and cold rolled threads as classification criteria. The fastener under protest is a screw for tariff purposes.
HOLDING:
Under the authority of GRI 1, the screw spikes are provided for in heading 7318. They are classifiable in subheading 7318.11.00, 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
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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.gov, by means of the Freedom of Information Act, and other methods of public distribution.
Sincerely,
John Durant, Director
Commercial Rulings Division