CLA-2-84:OT:RR:NC:N1:102
Ms. Jill M. Hurley
Livingston International, Inc.
670 Young Street
Tonawanda, NY 14227
RE: The tariff classification of thermostatic water supply valves from Germany
Dear Ms. Hurley:
In your letter dated August 16, 2011 you requested a tariff classification ruling on behalf of your client, Grohe America. Descriptive literature was submitted.
The articles in question are described as the Grotherm XL Exposed Central Thermostat (35 085 000) and Grotherm Thermostat Rough-In Valve (34 331 000) and are used to “measure” and control the temperature of the water entering indoor plumbing systems, in conformance with the user selected temperature.
The Grotherm units are used in indoor plumbing, both for commercial and private use in homes, most often for prevention of scalding by limiting the upper temperature of the water passing through them. The Grotherm units have two inlets, one for a hot water line and one for a cold water line. The output is a single line of water at a user selected temperature (somewhere between the temperature of the hot and cold water inputs).
The desired value of the water temperature at the outlet is selected by manually setting a calibrated control handle. Setting the control handle to a desired setting translates into a known position of a paraffin wax cartridge located within the valve body within the flow path of the hot and cold water inlets. Variations in the cartridge dimension as a function of temperature alter the flow path, which in turn alters the relative flow of hot incoming water with respect to the flow of cold incoming water to maintain the user selected temperature.
In your request you assert that the Grotherm units cannot regulate or alter the flow pressure, velocity, rate, volume, or otherwise control the flow of the water moving through the units. You offer that the only variable these units can affect is the temperature of the exiting water stream. Therefore, you maintain that the Grotherm units are not valves of heading 8481, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), but rather automatic regulating or controlling instruments and apparatus of heading 9032, HTSUS. We disagree.
Heading 8481, HTSUS, provides for taps, cocks, valves and similar appliances for controlling variables such as flow, pressure, liquid level and temperature. The Grotherm units control the temperature of the outlet water by controlling the relative flow rate and volume of hot and cold water into the valve body. The paraffin cartridge is located on the inbound side of the valve body. Based on the temperature selected by the user, the cartridge is placed at a position that will provide the selected temperature. Fluctuations in the water temperature alter the paraffin wax cartridge such that more or less hot water is allowed to flow based on the expansion or contraction of the cartridge in the selected position. The paraffin cartridge functions as a thermostatic valve mechanism that modulates the incoming flow of hot and cold water to maintain the temperature set by the user. Thus, the temperature of the outlet water is always as you state “somewhere between the temperature of the hot and cold water” entering the valve. The Grotherm units are simply self-operating mixing valves that use an internal thermostatic element to maintain a user set temperature by regulating the flow of incoming hot and cold water to the valve’s outlet.
Accordingly, we find that the Grotherm units are valves of heading 8481, HTSUS. Further, because the Grotherm units are valves of heading 8481, HTSUS, they cannot be classified in HTSUS heading 9032 because such valves are excluded from the heading by note 1(g) to chapter 90 of the tariff.
The applicable subheading for the Grohtherm valves will be 8481.80.9015, HTSUS, which provides for regulator valves, self-operating, for controlling variables such as temperature, pressure, flow and liquid level. The rate of duty will be 2 percent ad valorem.
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/.
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 Kenneth T. Brock at (646) 733-3009.
Sincerely,
Robert B. Swierupski
Director
National Commodity Specialist Division