CLA-2 OT:RR:CTF:TCM H263700 ALS
Port Director
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Lincoln/Juarez Bridge, Administrative Bldg. #2
Laredo, Texas 78040
RE: Internal Advice; Tariff Classification of Column Compartments for High Performance Liquid Chromatographs
Dear Port Director:
This letter is in reply to your request for internal advice of April 9, 2015, initiated by counsel on behalf of Agilent Technologies, Inc. regarding the tariff classification of column compartments for high performance liquid chromatographs (hereinafter referred to as “Compartments”). Our decision is set forth below.
FACTS:
A column compartment is a unit of a high performance liquid chromatograph. It is used with high performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC) machines in the “Agilent 1200 Infinity Series.” Agilent states that HPLC “machines are used in laboratories to perform chemical and biological analysis in many applications including; food testing and agriculture, energy and chemicals, environmental, pharmaceuticals, and life science research.” Agilent also states that its “engineer/product expert” confirms that the following description of chromatography is valid:
Chromatography is the collective term for a set of laboratory techniques for the separation of mixtures. The mixture is dissolved in a fluid called the mobile phase, which carries it through a structure holding another material called the stationary phase. The various constituents of the mixture travel at different speeds, causing them to separate. The separation is based on differential partitioning between the mobile and stationary phases. Subtle differences in a compound's partition coefficient result in differential retention on the stationary phase and thus result in the separation compound mixtures.
Chromatography may be preparative or analytical. The purpose of preparative chromatography is to separate the components of a mixture on a preparative scale, e.g. for purification purposes. Analytical chromatography is done with small amounts of material and is for measuring relative proportions of analytes in a mixture. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Agilent describes the HPLC as follows:
High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), formerly referred to as high-pressure liquid chromatography, is a technique in analytic chemistry used to separate the components in a mixture, to identify each component, and to quantify each component. It relies on pumps to pass a pressurized liquid solvent (Iiquid phase) containing the sample mixture through a column filled with a solid absorbent material (stationary phase). Each component in the sample interacts slightly differently with the adsorbent material, causing different flow rate for the different components and leading to the separation of the components as they flow out the column to the detector.
Agilent further describes Agilent Technologies 1200 Series Column Compartments as such:
The Agilent Technologies 1200 Series Column Compartments ("Column
Compartments") hold the separation columns under defined conditions of temperature and pressure. The columns in the Column Compartment are where the separation of samples occurs.
The columns themselves are installed by the end user according to the specific needs of the user. There are a variety of types, sizes, and suppliers of the columns. At the time of importation, the columns are not with the Column Compartment.
The separation of sample mixtures into their individual compounds is the principal function of the Column Compartment, and the entire HPLC system.
After separation occurs in the columns, individual compounds flow out of the Column Compartment through capillary tubes to the detector unit where the compounds are quantified.
According the Agilent, a typical HPLC system is comprised of a solvent cabinet, vacuum degasser, pump, user interface, autosampler, column compartment, and detector units. The Compartment itself is comprised of a main electronic board that interfaces with the other components of the HPLC, a column identification board, fan assemblies, a column switching valve, capillary tubes, power supply, heat exchangers, data interface connections, and leak detection sensor. An image of the Agilent 1200 HPLC system is below, with the column compartment being the second ‘box’ from the bottom:
An image of the Agilent Thermostatted Column Compartment standing alone is below:
The separation columns are not imported with the Compartment. The composition and temperature of the pressurized liquid that passes through the columns “play a major role in the separation process by influencing the interactions taking place between sample components and sorbent” according to Agilent. The Compartment cools and heats the pressurized liquid as it goes through the columns, though Agilent states that the “cooling/heating function within the Column Compartment is ancillary to the separation function.”
As a result of a review of the tariff classification of the Compartment that your office undertook, your office classified the Compartment under subheading 8419.89, HTSUS, based on CBP Ruling NY N162924 (May 13, 2011). Agilent initially agreed with that result, but now contends that such classification to be in error. Your offices now recommends that the Compartment be classified under subheading 9027.90.5425 as a part of a liquid chromatograph.
ISSUE:
Is the Column Compartment of the Agilent High Performance Liquid Chromatographs, as described above, properly classified under HTSUS heading 8421, which provides for “Centrifuges, including centrifugal dryers; filtering or purifying machinery and apparatus, for liquids or gases; parts thereof”, or under HTSUS heading 9027, which provides for “Instruments and apparatus for physical or chemical analysis (for example, polarimeters, refractometers, spectrometers,
gas or smoke analysis apparatus); instruments and apparatus for measuring or checking viscosity, porosity, expansion, surface tension or the like; instruments and apparatus for measuring or checking quantities of heat, sound or light (including exposure meters); microtomes; parts and accessories thereof”?
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
Classification under the HTSUS is determined in accordance with the General Rules of Interpretation (“GRI”) and, in the absence of special language or context which otherwise requires, by the Additional U.S. Rules of Interpretation (“ARI”). GRI 1 provides that the classification of goods shall be “determined according to the terms of the headings 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, GRIs 2 through 6 may be applied in order.
The following headings of the HTSUS are under consideration in this case:
8421 Centrifuges, including centrifugal dryers; filtering or purifying machinery and apparatus, for liquids or gases; parts thereof:
Filtering or purifying machinery and apparatus for liquids:
8421.29.00 Other.................................................................................
* * *
Parts:
8421.99.00 Other.................................................................................
* * *
9027 Instruments and apparatus for physical or chemical analysis (for example, polarimeters, refractometers, spectrometers, gas or smoke analysis apparatus); instruments and apparatus for measuring or checking viscosity, porosity, expansion, surface tension or the like; instruments and apparatus for measuring or checking quantities of heat, sound or light (including exposure meters); microtomes; parts and accessories thereof:
9027.20 Chromatographs and electrophoresis instruments:
9027.20.50 Electrical...........................................................................
* * *
9027.90 Microtomes; parts and accessories:
9027.90.54 Of electrophoresis instruments not incorporating an optical or other measuring device.................................
* * * * * * * * * * * *
There is no dispute that the Column Compartment is not properly classified under heading 8419, HTSUS, as laboratory equipment. Thus, CBP Ruling NY N162924 is inapplicable to the present case.
Agilent contends that the Compartment is properly classified under heading 9027, HTSUS, as liquid chromatographs or parts of liquid chromatographs because the columns that are installed in the Compartment upon importation is “where the preparative chromatography is performed” and the columns “perform the essential function of separation which is at the heart of chromatography.” Agilent claims, pursuant to GRI 2(a) that the Compartment is an incomplete or unfinished liquid chromatograph and has the essential character of a complete HPLC system.
GRI 2(a) provides the following:
2. (a) Any reference in a heading to an article shall be taken to include a reference to that article incomplete or unfinished, provided that, as entered, the incomplete or unfinished article has the essential character of the complete or finished article. It shall also include a reference to that article complete or finished (or falling to be classified as complete or finished by virtue of this rule), entered unassembled or disassembled.
We note that Agilent’s claims focus on the functions of the columns after they are installed in the Compartment (which occurs after importation), and not the functions of the Compartment itself. It is well-settled that goods are to be classified according to their condition as imported. See Mita Copystar Am. v. United States, 21 F.3d 1079, 1082 (Fed. Cir. 1994); see also CBP Ruling HQ H250531 (April 20, 2015). Given that the columns are installed in the Compartment only after importation, it cannot be said that the Compartment performs those functions in its condition as imported. Consequently, we find that the Compartment does not possess the essential character of a liquid chromatograph upon importation. Therefore, we conclude that the Compartment, in its condition as imported, is not classifiable under heading 9027, HTSUS, either as a liquid chromatograph, complete or incomplete, finished or unfinished, or as a part thereof.
Alternatively, Agilent contends that the Compartment is classifiable under heading 8421, HTSUS. CBP has consistently ruled that columns or tubes packed with gel to be used in chromatographs are classified under heading 8421, HTSUS, as parts of chromatographs. See, e.g., CBP Ruling HQ 088828 (July 3, 1991) and CBP Ruling NY N030157 (June 26, 2008). Upon review of the Compartment’s discrete functions, which include heating and cooling, containing the columns, and heat exchanging, we find that the Compartment, as imported, is a discrete part of an HPLC much as the columns packed with gel in HQ 088828 and NY N030157. There is nothing in the Compartment’s construction or function as imported that would suggest a use other than as a part of an HPLC. Upon this finding, we note that Note 2(a) to Chapter 90, HTSUS, specifically excludes articles of Chapter 84, HTSUS, from classification in Chapter 90, HTSUS.
Based on the foregoing, we find that the Column Compartment of the Agilent High Performance Liquid Chromatographs, as described above, is a part of a liquid chromatograph as provided for under heading 8421, HTSUS, in accordance with GRI 1 and the cited CBP rulings. Specifically, the Column Compartment is properly classified under subheading 8421.99.00, HTSUS, which provides for “Centrifuges, including centrifugal dryers; filtering or purifying machinery and apparatus, for liquids or gases; parts thereof: Parts: Other...”
HOLDING:
The subject Column Compartment of the Agilent High Performance Liquid Chromatographs is properly classified, by virtue of GRI 1, under heading 8421, HTSUS. Specifically, it is classified under subheading 8421.99.00, HTSUS, which provides for “Centrifuges, including centrifugal dryers; filtering or purifying machinery and apparatus, for liquids or gases; parts thereof: Parts: Other...” The general column one rate of duty, for merchandise classified in this subheading is Free.
Duty rates are provided for your convenience and 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.
No later than 60 days from the date of the decision, the Office of International Trade, Regulations and Rulings, will make the decision available to CBP personnel, and to the public on the CBP Home Page on the World Wide Web at www.cbp.gov, by means of the Freedom of Information Act, and other methods of public distribution.
Sincerely,
Myles B. Harmon, Director
Commercial and Trade Facilitation Division