OT:RR:NC:N2:220
Jason Wapiennik
Great Lakes Customs Law
32437 5 Mile Road
Livonia, MI 48154
RE: The country of origin of an electrical controller
Dear Mr. Wapiennik:
In your letter dated October 20, 2023, you requested a country of origin ruling on behalf of your client, Linak U.S. Inc.
The merchandise under consideration is identified as the CA-CO Controlbox (Controller), which is described as a plastic housing having two printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) mounted inside. You state that the Controller is intended to control and adjust actuators in various
applications, such as hospital beds.
In your letter, you describe the manufacturing process of the two PCBAs as occurring in Indonesia, where individual components are soldered onto bare printed circuit boards to produce a communication PCBA and the Mainboard PCBA. The two PCBAs are tested, programmed, and shipped to China where they are inserted into a plastic enclosure, the enclosure is ultrasonically welded, the Controllers are packaged and prepared for export to the United States.
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.
The “country of origin” is defined in 19 CFR 134.1(b) as “the country of manufacture, production, or growth of any article of foreign origin entering the United States. Further work or material added to an article in another country must effect a substantial transformation in order to render such other country the 'country of origin' within the meaning of this part.”
The test for determining whether a substantial transformation will occur is whether an article emerges from a process with a new name, character or use, different from that possessed by the article prior to processing. See Texas Instruments Inc. v. United States, 69 C.C.P.A. 151 (1982). This determination is based on the totality of the evidence. See National Hand Tool Corp. v. United States, 16 C.I.T. 308 (1992), aff’d, 989 F.2d 1201 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
Regarding the country of origin of the Controller, it is the opinion of this office that the assembly of the PCBAs in Indonesia by soldering the individual components onto bare boards results in a substantial transformation of the individual components to produce a PCBAs of Indonesian origin. However, the assembly work performed in China, which consists of inserting the two PCBAs into a plastic shell, is not complex and does not affect a substantial transformation of the PCBAs. Furthermore, in our view, the Mainboard PCBA establishes the function of the electrical control device because it is the article within the assembly that connects to and performs the electrical control function. As a result, we find that the components that make up the Controller are not transformed in China into an article of commerce with a different name, character, and use. Thus, the CA-CO Controlbox is considered a product of Indonesia for origin and marking purposes at time of importation into the United States.
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 Karl Moosbrugger at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Steven A. Mack
Director
National Commodity Specialist Division