CLA-2-04:OT:RR:NC:2:231
Mr. Eric Behrns
Elmwood Strategies
2024 P Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
RE: The tariff classification of “Paski Sir” sheep’s-milk cheese from Croatia.
Dear Mr. Behrns:
In your letter dated February 10, 2011, you requested a tariff classification ruling.
The item in question is identified as “Paski Sir,” a hard, aged, sheep’s-milk cheese produced on the Croatian island of Pag in the North-Dalmatian archipelago in the Adriatic Sea. The cheese will be imported in original loaves (wheels weighing about two kilos each) said to have a golden yellow rind and a yellow interior. The ingredients are stated to be pasteurized sheep’s milk, milk cultures, rennet and salt. You will primarily be importing the cheese at a ripening stage of 12 to 14 months. You indicate that, in its imported condition, the cheese will contain approximately 20 percent moisture and 80 percent dry matter, with 45 percent of the latter being fat.
An article found on the Internet indicates that Paski Sir has a unique, peculiar and subtle piquant flavor and odor. With regard to “mouthfeel,” the same source opines that this cheese crumbles and melts in one’s mouth.
The applicable subheading for the Paski Sir cheese will be 0406.90.5600, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), which provides for cheese and curd: other cheese: other cheeses, and substitutes for cheese, including mixtures of the above: cheeses made from sheep’s milk: in original loaves and suitable for grating. The rate of duty will be free.
Duty rates are provided for your convenience and are subject to change. The text of the most recent HTSUS and the accompanying duty rates are provided on World Wide Web at http://www.usitc.gov/tata/hts/.
Importations of cheese are subject to regulations administered by various U.S. agencies. Requests for information regarding applicable regulations administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) may be addressed to that agency at the following location:
USDA
APHIS, VS, NCIE
Products Program
4700 River Road, Unit 40
Riverdale, MD 20737-1231
Tel: (301) 734-3277
This merchandise is subject to The Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (The Bioterrorism Act), which is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Information on the Bioterrorism Act can be obtained by calling the FDA at 301-575-0156, or at the Web site www.fda.gov/oc/bioterrorism/bioact.html.
The marking statute, section 304, Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (19 U.S.C. 1304), provides that, unless excepted, every article of foreign origin (or its container) imported into the U.S. shall be marked in a conspicuous place as legibly, indelibly, and permanently as the nature of the article (or its container) will permit, in such a manner as to indicate to the ultimate purchaser in the U.S. the English name of the country of origin of the article. In the present case, the individual wheels or their immediate packaging must therefore be marked or labeled to indicate the origin of the cheese, e.g., “Product of Croatia.”
This ruling is being issued under the provisions of Part 177 of the Customs Regulations (19 C.F.R. 177).
A copy of the ruling or the control number indicated above should be provided with the entry documents filed at the time this merchandise is imported. If you have any questions regarding the ruling, contact National Import Specialist Nathan Rosenstein at (646) 733-3030.
Sincerely,
Robert B. Swierupski
Director
National Commodity Specialist Division