CLA-2-48:OT:RR:NC:2:230
Mr. Blake Gammon
Intertape Polymer Group®
100 Paramount Drive
Suite 300
Sarasota, FL 34232
RE: The tariff classification of Floor Brace from Canada
Dear Mr. Gammon:
In your letter dated June 1, 2015, you requested a tariff classification ruling. The ruling was returned to you for additional information, which was resubmitted to this office on June 25, 2015.
The ruling was requested on a product identified as “Floor Brace”, a product generally used as a protective layer on the underside of recreational vehicles. Photographs, a sample, and product specifications were submitted for our review.
The Floor Brace product is a liner board composed of 17.5-mil-thick kraft paperboard that has been laminated on one side with a 6-mil-thick, coated polyethylene textile. The textile is made from interwoven polyethylene strips measuring not over 5mm in width, and has been coated on both sides with polyethylene. You state that the polyethylene textile weighs 119 g/m², and the kraft paperboard is 337 g/m². The Floor Brace product is imported in 1000-foot rolls, in widths of 96 and 105 inches. The product edges are straight cut and are not worked in any way. You explain that the Floor Brace is installed using adhesive and/or mechanical fasteners.
As noted, the woven plastic layer is of a textile construction. However, the General Explanatory Notes to the Harmonized System (ENs) for Chapter 39, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), state that such textiles, when either completely embedded in plastics or entirely coated or covered on both sides with such material, provided that such coating or covering can be seen with the naked eye with no account being taken of any resulting change of color, are not classifiable as textile, but as plastic sheet. The ENs also state that combinations of paper and plastic are only classifiable in Chapter 39 if the plastic constitutes more than half the thickness of the product. In the instant product, the paper is nearly three times the thickness of the plastic, therefore the product is classifiable in Chapter 48 as paper.
The applicable subheading for the Floor Brace product will be 4811.90.8050, HTSUS, which provides for Paper, paperboard, cellulose wadding and webs of cellulose fibers, coated, impregnated, covered, surface-colored, surface-decorated or printed, in rolls or rectangular (including square) sheets, of any size, other than goods of the kind described in heading 4803, 4809 or 4810: Other paper, paperboard, cellulose wadding and webs of cellulose fibers: In strips or rolls of a width exceeding 15 cm or in rectangular (including square) sheets with one side exceeding 36 cm and the other side exceeding 15 cm in the unfolded state: Other: Other: Other: Weighing over 30 g/m2: 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