CLA-2 OT:RR:CTF:TCM W968423 IDL
Marilyn-Joy Cerny
Cerny Associates, P.C.
24 Smith Street
Building 2, Suite 102
Pawling, New York 12564
Re: Electric Vaporizer; Revocation of NY R00477
Dear Ms. Cerny:
This letter concerns your request, dated September 27, 2006, for reconsideration of NY R00477 (July 19, 2004), on behalf of your client, Sunbeam Products. NY R00477, issued by the Director, National Commodity Specialist Division, concerns the classification of an electric, household room vaporizer under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). We have since reviewed NY R00477 and find that it is incorrect.
Pursuant to section 625(c), Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1625(c)), as amended by section 623 of Title VI (Customs Modernization) of the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, Pub. L. 103-182, 107 Stat. 2057, 2186 (1993), notice of the proposed revocation was published in the Customs Bulletin, Volume 42, No. 26, on June 18, 2008. We received two comments supporting and one opposing the revocation of NY R00477.
FACTS:
The Sunbeam Health at Home Warm Mist Vaporizer, Model 1387, was described in NY R00477 as:
a room vaporizer consisting of an upper housing and a lower tank. The
upper housing contains two electrodes. The tank holds the water to be
vaporized. The electric current passing through the water between the
two electrodes turns the water into steam.
CBP classified the Sunbeam Health at Home Warm Mist Vaporizer as an “other” electrothermic appliance under subheading 8516.79.0000, HTSUSA. In your request for reconsideration, you contend that the subject merchandise should be classified as “[o]ther water heaters and immersion heaters” in subheading 8516.10.0080, HTSUSA.
ISSUE:
Whether the Warm Mist Vaporizer is classified as “other water heaters and immersion heaters” in subheading 8516.10.0080, HTSUSA, or as “other electrothermic appliances” in subheading 8516.79.0000, HTSUSA?
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
Merchandise is classifiable under the HTSUS in accordance with the General Rules of Interpretation (GRIs). The systematic detail of the HTSUS is such that most goods are classified by application of GRI 1, that is, 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 HTSUS provisions under consideration are as follows:
8516 Electric instantaneous or storage water heaters and immersion
heaters; electric space heating apparatus and soil heating apparatus; electrothermic hairdressing apparatus (for example, hair dryers, hair curlers, curling tong heaters) and hand dryers; electric flatirons; other electrothermic appliances of a kind used for domestic purposes; electric heating resistors, other than those of heading 8545; parts thereof:
8516.10.00 Electric instantaneous or storage water heaters and
immersion heaters
* * *
8516.10.0080 Other water heaters and immersion heaters…..
* * *
Other electrothermic appliances:
* * *
8516.79.0000 Other…..
…
In understanding the language of the HTSUS, the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System Explanatory Notes (ENs) may be utilized. The ENs, although not dispositive or legally binding, provide a commentary on the scope of each heading of the HTSUS, and are the official interpretation of the Harmonized System at the international level. See T.D. 89-80, 54 Fed. Reg. 35127, 35128 (August 23, 1989).
EN 85.16 describes different categories of products classifiable as electric instantaneous or storage water heaters and immersion heaters, including “[e]lectrode hot water boilers, in which an AC [alternating current] passes through the water between two electrodes.” EN 85.16(A)(4). Counsel argues that because the subject merchandise “boil[s] water by passing an alternating current through the water between two electrodes”, it meets the parameters of EN
85.16(A)(4), and should be classified in subheading 8516.10.0080, HTSUSA, as an “other electric instantaneous water heater”.
Counsel also cites HQ 968027 (June 21, 2006), in which CBP revoked an earlier ruling (HQ 958017, dated February 13, 1996) that classified certain electrode steam humidifiers in subheading 8543.80.75, HTSUS. The electrode steam humidifiers were described as goods that “creat[e] steam which is used to add moisture, i.e., humidity, to the air that passes through a furnace. The steam is produced by means of hot water produced by an electric current generated between electrodes immersed in the water.” CBP concluded that “the function of electrode boilers is to produce hot water with steam being a byproduct for the purpose of introducing moisture into the air (humidity). Such apparatus is provided for in heading 8516”. By means of that revocation, CBP changed the classification of the merchandise to subheading 8516.10.0080, HTSUSA. See HQ 968027.
One commenter argued that the “ultimate function of the machine is to make steam [rather than] hot water,” that subheading 8516.10.0080, HTSUSA, does not describe the subject merchandise, and that the subject merchandise, as a product similar to “facial saunas…in which water is vaporized for facial skin treatment” (quoting from EN 85.16 (E)16) should continue to be classified under the “other” provision of subheading 8516.79.0000, HTSUSA.
Although the commenter is correct that, ultimately, the subject merchandise produces steam, we disagree with the commenter’s conclusion that the merchandise is not described by the provisions of subheading 8516.10.0080, HTSUSA. We find that the subject merchandise, which functions by passing an electrical current from one steel electrode to another heats water in order to produce steam, and is described by the provisions of subheading 8516.10.0080, HTSUSA, as an electric instantaneous water heater. Therefore, for the reasons set forth above, NY R00477 is revoked.
HOLDING:
By application of GRI 1, the electric vaporizer is classified under subheading 8516.10.0080, HTSUSA, as: “Electric instantaneous…water heaters…: Electric instantaneous…water heaters… Other water heaters….” The column one, general rate of duty is “free”.
EFFECT ON OTHER RULINGS:
NY R00477 (July 19, 2004) is hereby revoked.
In accordance with 19 U.S.C. § 1625(c), this ruling will become effective 60 days after publication in the Customs Bulletin.
Sincerely,
Myles B. Harmon, Director
Commercial and Trade Facilitation Division