CLA-2 CO:R:C:T 088574 HP
Mr. George Donath
Kaufmann Demuth & Co. Ltd.
C.I. Tower
St. George's Square
New Malden
Surry
ENGLAND
KT3 4HJ
RE: Wet blue bovine hides and skins are otherwise pretanned,
not parchment dressed or prepared after tanning.
Dear Mr. Donath:
This is in reply to your letter of January 16, 1991, to
the Customs Attach, London, concerning the tariff
classification of wet blue hides, produced in the United
Kingdom, under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United
States Annotated (HTSUSA).
FACTS:
The merchandise at issue consists of wet blue1 lime
split skins of English oxen and heifers, not further prepared.
ISSUE:
Whether the hides are correctly classified as bovine
leather?
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
Heading 4104, HTSUSA, provides for leather of bovine or
equine animals. The Explanatory Notes (EN) to the HTSUSA
constitute the official interpretation of the tariff at the
international level. While not legally binding, they do
represent the considered views of classification experts of
the Harmonized System Committee. It has therefore been the
practice of the Customs Service to follow, whenever possible,
the terms of the Explanatory Notes when interpreting the
HTSUSA. The EN to heading 0102, HTSUSA, defines bovine
animals as:
... all animals of the subfamily Bovinae,
whether or not domestic.... These
include, inter alia:
(1) Animals of the genus Bos, including
the common ox (Bos taurus), the Zebu
or humped ox (Bos indicus) and the
Watussi ox.
We assume for the purposes of this ruling that your
oxen/heifers fall within this category.
Subheading 4104.22.0000, HTSUSA, provides for, inter
alia, bovine leather, not vegetable pretanned but otherwise
pretanned, not further tanned, retanned or otherwise further
prepared. Although no sample was submitted with your request,
we assume from your description of the merchandise at issue
that this language fully describes your product.
You state that you were requested by one of your
customers, Lackawanna Leather Company of Omaha, Nebraska, to
invoice the above-described merchandise not as wet blue hides,
but as semi-finished hides for upholstery leather. You did
so, after expressing your concerns to your customer that you
considered the U.S.A. subheading (4104.39.4000, HTSUSA)
incorrect. As a result of your new invoicing, the merchandise
was entered at a slightly lower duty rate. Your customer now
requests that you reimburse him the difference between the
duty rates of wet blue hides and upholstery leather. Although
the matter of reimbursement is purely a contract matter
between your two companies, you have requested us to address
the classification dispute between you and Lackawanna Leather.
Classification of the instant merchandise under
subheading 4104.39.4000, HTSUSA, is incorrect. GRI 6 states
that "classification of goods in the subheadings [(i.e.,
beyond the four digit level)] of a heading shall be determined
according to the terms of those subheadings...." Explanatory
Note (III) to this rule provides that "[t]he scope of a two-
dash heading shall not extend beyond that of the one dash
heading...." Therefore, in order for merchandise to be
classified in subheading 4104.39.40, HTSUSA, it must be
classifiable in subheading 4104.39, HTSUSA.
Subheading 4104.39, HTSUSA, provides for similar bovine
or equine leather as is described in subheading 4104.22,
HTSUSA, but the former leather must be either parchment-
dressed or prepared after tanning. As you have stated, the
instant merchandise is merely wet blue. It is consequently
not classifiable in subheading 4104.39, HTSUSA, as either
parchment-dressed or prepared after tanning.
Endnotes
1.In HRL 088001 of January 14, 1991, we stated:
[w]et blue ... skins are processed in a
manner that they are considered to be
leather. It is true that they are imported
wet and often retanned after importation, but
this is to avoid certain difficulties in the
handling of such skins.
* * *
However, these conditions do not alter the
fact that [these] skins are leather and
considered as such for tariff purposes.
HOLDING:
As a result of the foregoing, the instant merchandise is
classified under subheading 4104.22.0000, HTSUSA, as leather
of bovine or equine animals, without hair on, other than
leather of heading 4108 or 4109, other bovine leather and
equine leather, pretanned, tanned or retanned but not further
prepared, whether or not split, bovine leather, otherwise
pretanned. The applicable rate of duty is 5 percent ad
valorem.
Sincerely,
John Durant, Director
Commercial Rulings Division