CLA-2-02:S:N:N1:229-866100
Ms. Tina Kuehne
Mittelstaedt, Galaviz & Mylin
450 Sansome Street, Suite 200
San Francisco, CA 94111-3310
RE: The tariff classification of frozen boneless COW TRIMMINGS
35CL from Australia.
Dear Ms. Kuehne:
In your letter dated August 2, 1991, you requested a tariff
classification ruling.
Frozen boneless COW TRIMMINGS 35CL is described as a
boneless beef product, consisting of boneless beef lean and fat,
which is put up with a consistent ratio of 35 percent lean meat
to 65 percent beef fat. The trimmings themselves are said to be
pieces of fat with meat attached, derived from meat trimming
operations in a packing plant. Because of its high fat content,
this product is not intended to be eaten in its imported
condition, but is used by meat processors as a 'filler' in ground
beef, in salami and other sausages, and in similar products. In
use, these trimmings are "mixed with the leaner beef to adjust
the final fat content of their product."
You state that you have tentatively entered this product as
frozen boneless beef in heading 0202.30.6000, Harmonized Tariff
Schedule of the United States (HTS); that you believe this
product has also been entered as beef fat in Chapter 15 of the
Harmonized Tariff; and that this product may, in fact, be
classifiable as "meat offal" of heading 0206, HTS.
Legal Note 1(c) in Chapter 2, HTS, excludes from
classification therein "Animal fat, other than products of
heading 0209 (Chapter 15)." Regarding this exclusion, the
Explanatory Notes to Chapter 2 state that "Animal fat presented
separately is excluded (chapter 15)(except in case of unrendered
pig fat free of lean meat and unrendered poultry fat which fall
in heading 02.09 even if fit only for industrial use), but fat
presented in the carcass or adhering to meat is treated as
forming part of the meat. [Underlining supplied.] Accordingly,
as this product consists of fat adhering to meat and, in fact,
has a lean meat content of 35 percent, it would not be
considered, for tariff purposes, as an animal fat of Chapter 15,
but as "meat of bovine animals" in Chapter 2. We note, finally,
that this product is not "meat offal," as described in the
Explanatory Notes to Chapter 2.
The applicable subheading for frozen boneless COW TRIMMINGS
35CL will be 0202.30.6000, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the
United States (HTS), which provides for Meat of bovine animals,
frozen:...Boneless:...Other. The rate of duty will be 4.4 cents
per kilogram.
This ruling is being issued under the provisions of Section
177 of the Customs Regulations (19 C.F.R. 177).
A copy of this ruling letter should be attached to the entry
documents filed at the time this merchandise is imported. If the
documents have been filed without a copy, this ruling should be
brought to the attention of the Customs officer handling the
transaction.
Sincerely,
Jean F. Maguire
Area Director
New York Seaport