CLA-2-44:OT:RR:NC:2:230
Ms. April J. Collier
Pacific Customs Brokers Inc.
1400 A Street
Blaine, WA 98230
RE: The tariff classification of wooden peeler cores from Canada
Dear Ms. Collier:
This ruling is being issued to correct Customs Ruling Number N257432, dated October 8, 2014. The ruling letter contains a clerical error. A complete corrected ruling follows.
In your letter dated September 11, 2014, you requested a tariff classification ruling on behalf of your client, CIPA Lumber Company Ltd.
The ruling was requested on wooden peeler cores. Peeler cores are the center portion of a log that remains after veneer is sliced from its perimeter. A representative sample was submitted for our examination. The submitted sample is a rounded wooden peeler core measuring approximately 11 ¼” (L) x 2 ¾” in diameter. The peeler cores are not further worked or finished, and are imported as blunts, not pointed. You state that the peeler cores will be imported in dimensions 60mm round in diameter x 103” (L).
Additional U.S. Note 1(a) to Chapter 44, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), defines the term "wood waste" as “residual material other than firewood resulting from the processing of wood, including scraps, shavings, sawdust, veneer clippings, chipper rejects and similar small wood residues, as well as larger or coarser solid types of residual wood such as slabs, edgings, cull pieces and veneer log cores.” Because peeler, or veneer log, cores are identified by this note as wood waste, they are classifiable as such in Heading 4401.
Classification was suggested in heading 4403, HTSUS, which provides for wood in the rough, whether or not stripped of bark or sapwood, or roughly squared. The Explanatory Notes for 4403 describe the products in this heading as “timber in the natural state as felled, usually with the branches lopped off, and such timber stripped of its outer or both its outer and inner bark or from which merely the rough protuberances have been removed. It also includes wood from which the waste outer layers, consisting of the most recent growths (sapwood), have been removed for economy in transport or to prevent decay.” The principal products of this heading include timber for sawing, logs for pulping, and round logs for the manufacture of veneer sheets. The peeler cores have already been used for the manufacture of veneer sheets and no longer reflect the condition of the original tree trunk, and are thus precluded from classification in heading 4403.
The applicable subheading for the wooden peeler cores will be 4401.39.4090, HTSUS, which provides for Fuel wood, in logs, in billets, in twigs, in faggots or in similar forms; wood in chips or particles; sawdust and wood waste and scrap, whether or not agglomerated in logs, briquettes, pellets or similar forms: Sawdust and wood waste and scrap, whether or not agglomerated in logs, briquettes, pellets or similar forms: Other: Other: Other. 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/.
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 Laurel Duvall at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Gwenn Klein Kirschner
Director
National Commodity Specialist Division