CLA-2-49, 99:RR:NC:2:234 F82749
Ms. Bridget Lowy
Dartrans, Inc.
6610 Tributary Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21224
RE: The tariff classification of lithographs from England
Dear Ms. Lowy:
In your letter dated February 1, 2000, on behalf of your client World Class Learning Material, addressed to an official of the U.S. Customs Service at Baltimore, you requested a tariff classification ruling.
A sample was submitted, which will be retained for reference. It is a set of 24 photographs of “shapes present in our environment”, reproduced in color on paper or paperboard of a thickness of approximately 0.30 mm, by what appears to be a lithographic printing process. The subject matter is, variously, “Annual Growth Rings-Larch”, “Dormouse in Hibernation”, “Heath Snails”, and similar phenomena. The reverse of each card is blank white. Textual printing is limited to a small title line on one edge of the printed face.
You refer to the merchandise as “Photo Cards”, and advise that your client is presently importing them into Baltimore from Great Britain; he has been “using 4911.91.4040, which was rejected by Commodity Team (sic). They proposed using 9903.08.11 (4911.91.2040), but later advised that 9810.00.35 may be applicable.”
Subheading 9810.00.30 covers articles, including “lithographs”, imported for the use of any public library, any other public institution or any nonprofit institution established for educational, scientific, literary or philosophical purposes, or for the encouragement of the fine arts.
As per U.S. Note 1 to subchapter X, chapter 98, such articles must be exclusively for the use of the institution involved, and not for distribution, sale or other commercial use within five years after being entered.
Your description of the transactions in these “Photo Cards” does not establish that the requirements of U.S. Note 1, and the language of the heading and subheading 9810.00.30, are met. Classification in this provision will not be considered, under this circumstance.
The applicable subheading for the Photo Cards, and other articles like them in all material respects, will be 4911.91.2040, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS), which provides for: Other (than certain specified kinds of) printed matter, including printed pictures and photographs: Lithographs on paper or paperboard: Not over 0.51 mm in thickness: Other (than posters). The normal trade relations rate of duty would be 5.3 cents per kilo.
However, the HTS has been modified by adding the following superior text and subheading to subchapter III of chapter 99:
Articles…the product of the United Kingdom:
9903.08.11: Lithographs on paper or paperboard, not over 0.51mm in thickness, printed not over 20 years at time of importation (provided for in subheading 4911.91.20).
Under this provision, the Photo Cards of your request, from Great Britain, classified under subheading 4911.91.2040, HTS, are subject to a 100 percent ad valorem rate of duty.
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 Carl Abramowitz at 212-637-7060.
Sincerely,
Robert B. Swierupski
Director,
National Commodity
Specialist Division