OT:RR:CTF:CPMMA H317670 KSG
Ms. Bobbi Jo “BJ” Shannon, Esquire
Alston & Byrd
950 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20004-1404
RE: Tariff classification of Rediroom cart and canopy components of a temporary single-patient isolation room
Dear Ms. Shannon:
This is in reply to your January 5, 2021, request for a binding ruling on behalf of your client, GAMA Healthcare Ltd., regarding the tariff classification of the cart and canopy components of a temporary, single-patient isolation room, known as a “Rediroom,” under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS).
FACTS:
The products at issue are a “Rediroom”, which is a temporary single-patient isolation room comprised of two components: a cart and a canopy. The cart and the canopy are imported separately. The canopy is changed regularly as described below. Rediroom is a mobile cart that expands into a HEPA air-filtered isolation room, which equips hospitals to respond to outbreaks of infection by isolating patients. The cart will be used as a frame and the canopy will be used as enclosure to function as an isolation room. The Rediroom offers hospitals and other health care facilities a way to temporarily segregate a patient without the need to build permanent isolation facilities.
In a collapsed configuration, the cart provides a metal frame that supports the canopy and functions as a mobile personal protective equipment (PPE) cart. It has dispensers for smaller PPE items, such as gloves, as well as shelf and bin space to store items such as hand sanitizers. The PPE items are not imported with the cart. The cart has lockable wheels so health care providers can easily roll the cart from one location to the other. In an erected and expanded configuration, the cart expands into four pillars/posts forming a square space connected by three built-in scissor rails in the left, right, and back, and a built-in curtain rail at the top front. The cart also includes foot pedals both inside and outside the isolation room, for hands-free entry and exit, and a timer to ensure the doors close automatically if not closed via the foot pedal.
The canopy is composed of four walls, a roof, a HEPA filter and four loops (connectors) at its edges. The material for the four walls consists of two layers of polypropylene, thermal-bonded to an internal layer of polypropylene. The walls have “window” panels, where the wall material lifts up to reveal transparent plastic. One wall has perforations, through which cords or other connectors for medical equipment can be pushed. The roof is made of 100 percent spunbonded polypropylene material. The canopy is imported in a folded condition in a plastic bag. It will be disposed between each patient or approximately once per week if the same patient remains in seclusion.
To create a Rediroom, the users load the canopy into the top of the cart, hang the handle of the bag from the hook of the cart, tear along the perforations and attach the colored connectors to the cart. They raise the frame and expand the cart, which unfolds the canopy, and position the canopy for final adjustments to complete the isolation room. The filter is inserted into the fan filter unit in the left rear pillar to clean air inside the isolation room. The canopy is glued to the floor by peeling off the adhesive liner at the bottom of the canopy.
ISSUE:
Whether the Rediroom cart and canopy components of a temporary single-patient isolation room are classified as medical furniture or parts of medical furniture of heading 9402, HTSUS, or as other articles of plastics of heading 3926.
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
Classification under the HTSUS is made in accordance with the General Rules of Interpretation (GRIs). GRI 1 provides that the classification of goods shall be determined according to the terms of the headings of the tariff schedule 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, the remaining GRIs 2 through 6 may then be applied in order.
The 2024 HTSUS headings under consideration are the following:
3926 Other articles of plastics and articles of other materials of headings 3901 to 3914[.]
9402 Medical, surgical, dental, or veterinary furniture (for example, operating tables, examination tables, hospital beds with mechanical fittings, dentists' chairs); barbers' chairs and similar chairs, having rotating as well as both reclining and elevating movements; parts of the foregoing articles[.]
In understanding the language of the HTSUS, the Explanatory Notes (ENs) of the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, constitute the official interpretation of the Harmonized System at the international level. While neither legally binding nor dispositive, the ENs provide a commentary on the scope of each heading of the HTSUS and are generally indicative of the proper interpretation of these headings. See T.D. 89-80. 54 Fed. Reg. 35127, 35128 (August 23, 1989).
Chapter Note 2(x) excludes from chapter 39:
(x) Articles of chapter 94 (for example, furniture, luminaires and lighting fittings, illuminated signs, prefabricated buildings)[.]
EN 94.02 provides, in pertinent part, as follows:
MEDICAL, SURGICAL, DENTAL OR VETERINARY FURNITURE
This group includes:
…
11) Small tables, tables, cupboards and the like, whether or not on wheels (trolleys), of a type specially designed for instruments or bandages, medical or surgical supplies or anaesthetic equipment; instrument sterilising trolleys; special disinfection washbasins, self-opening sterile dressing boxes (generally on wheels) and waste bins for soiled dressings (whether or not on wheels); bottleholders, irrigator or douche carriers and the like, whether or not on pivoting castors; special instrument or dressing cabinets and cases.
The Rediroom cart and the canopy components are imported separately from two different manufacturers, so each component must be examined on its own under GRI 1.
We first consider whether the cart, imported alone, is classified in subheading 9402.90.0020, HTSUSA (Annotated), as medical furniture.
Pursuant to EN 94.02, medical furniture of heading 9402, HTSUS, includes trolleys, on wheels or not, that hold medical supplies (which would include PPE). The cart, in its folded state, is a trolley on wheels that holds PPE. In its unfolded state, the cart is still an article that holds PPE, and in addition contains a frame for an isolation room that is used in a hospital, and would be considered medical furniture of heading 9402, HTSUS.
Our determination is supported by prior CBP rulings that classified similar medical carts on castor wheels as medical furniture in subheading 9402.90.0020, HTSUSA. See, e.g., New York Ruling Letter (NY) N144436, dated Feb. 16, 2011 (classifying the aluminum frame of a medical care in subheading 9402.90.0020, HTSUSA); NY N210127, dated Apr. 12, 2012 (classifying a mobile medication cabinet on castors in subheading 9402.90.0020, HTSUSA); NY N128035, dated Nov. 4, 2010 (classifying a trolley on castors for carrying medical waste collectors in subheading 9402.90.0020, HTSUSA); NY L88636, dated Nov. 21, 2005 (classifying medical carts on castors that hold a medical cup dispenser, waste receptacle, storage bin, medical drawers, as well as a work surface and space for a computer with a mouse, in subheading 9402.90.0020, HTSUSA). Therefore, consistent with our prior rulings and in accordance with EN 94.02, the cart is classifiable as medical furniture in heading 9402, HTSUS, whether folded or unfolded. In accordance with GRI 6, the cart would be classified in subheading 9402.90.0020, HTSUSA.
The next question presented is whether the canopy is classified in subheading 9402.90.0020, HTSUSA, as a part of medical furniture or in heading 3926 as an other article of plastics.
As stated above, Chapter note 2(x), Chapter 39, HTSUS, excludes articles of Chapter 94 and specifies that this exclusion refers to furniture. Thus, if the canopy is classifiable in heading 9402 as medical furniture, it could not be classified in Chapter 39. Therefore, we will first consider whether the canopy can be classified in heading 9402 as a part of furniture.
In defining “part” for tariff classification purposes, the courts have fashioned two distinct, but not inconsistent, tests for determining whether a particular item qualifies as such. This was discussed in Bauerhin Techs. Ltd. P'ship. v. United States (“Bauerhin”), 110 F.3d 774, 778-79 (Fed. Cir. 1997). Under the first test, articulated in United States v. Willoughby Camera Stores, Inc. (“Willoughby”), 21 C.C.P.A. 322, 324 (1933), an imported item is a part only if it is “something necessary to the completion of that article without which the article to which it is to be joined, could not function as such article.” The second test, set forth in United States v. Pompeo (“Pompeo”), 43 C.C.P.A. 9, 14 (1955), equates a part to “an imported item dedicated solely for use with another article.”
In Bauerhin, the Court of Federal Appeals (“CAFC”) considered whether a canopy designed for a car seat was considered a part of the car seat. The court stated:
The facts in Willoughby Camera are considerably different from those presented here in which the article at issue, the canopy, serves no function or purpose that is independent of the child safety seat. It is undisputedly designed, marketed, and sold to be attached to the child safety seats. The facts of this case bear a closer resemblance to United States v. Pompeo, 43 C.C.P.A. 9, (1955). In Pompeo, the issue was whether an imported supercharger was properly considered a part of an automobile. There, the court looked to the nature and function of the imported item, the supercharger, to determine whether the item was a part of an automobile. The government in that case argued that because the automobiles were able to function with or without the supercharger, the imported supercharger was not properly considered a part of the automobile. The court disagreed, noting that the classification of the supercharger should turn on the nature of the supercharger and not on the design choices of the automobile manufacturer. Because the imported supercharger was “dedicated irrevocably for use upon automobiles,” the court held that the supercharger was properly classified as a part of automobiles. Pompeo, 43 C.C.P.A. at 13, as quoted in Bauerhin, supra, 110 F.3d at 779.
The CAFC stated in Bauerhin that Willoughby Camera and Pompeo must be read together, but that Pompeo, and not Willoughby Camera, was controlling when an imported item is dedicated solely for use with an article. Accordingly, when an item is dedicated solely for use with an article, Pompeo is controlling, and the item is classified as a part.
With regard to the canopy, it is separately imported and must be attached to the cart and changed with each new patient for the combined cart and canopy to function as a sterilized isolation room. The cart and canopy work together to create the isolation room. The canopy satisfies the parts test in Willoughby Camera because it is necessary to the completion of the Rediroom; without the canopy, the Rediroom could not serve its purpose of isolating infectious patients by functioning as a temporary isolation room. The canopy is also dedicated for use solely with the cart and serves no function or purpose that is independent of the cart, thus satisfying the Pompeo test. Accordingly, the canopy is considered a part of medical furniture of heading 9402, HTSUS. Therefore, the canopy is excluded from classification in Chapter 39. Pursuant to GRI’s 1 and 6, the canopy is classified in subheading 9402.90.0020, HTSUSA, as a part of medical furniture.
HOLDING:
By application of GRIs 1 and 6, both the cart and canopy described in the instant case are classified in subheading 9402.90.0020, HTSUSA, which provides for “Medical, surgical, dental or veterinary furniture (for example, operating tables, examination tables, hospital beds with mechanical fittings, dentists' chairs); barbers' chairs and similar chairs, having rotating as well as both reclining and elevating movements; parts of the foregoing articles: Other: Other.” The column one, general rate of duty 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 for at https://hts.usitc.gov/.
Sincerely,
Andrew M. Langreich, Chief Chemicals, Petroleum, Metals and Miscellaneous Articles Branch