CLA-2 CO:R:C:G 086397 CMS
District Director of Customs
U.S. Customhouse
1 East Bay Street
Savannah, GA 31401
RE: Linear Motion Guides; Linear Guides With Ball Bearings
Which Travel In Linear Fashion On Grooved Rails Or Tracks
Dear Sir,
This is in response to your Request for Internal Advice No.
72/89, CLA-1:SV:C:I:2:LEF, dated November 20, 1989, regarding the
classification of certain linear motion guides imported by OKUMA
Machine Tools, Inc (OKUMA).
FACTS:
The merchandise consists of certain linear motion guides
(LMG's). LMG's are comprised of (1) casings containing
circulating ball bearings, and (2) grooved rails. The balls
circulate in pathways within the casings and allow the casings to
travel up and down the rails with minimal friction. After
importation, machine tool tabletops sourced in the United States
are affixed to the tops of the bearing casings and the assemblies
are installed in machine tools.
ISSUE:
Are the linear motion guides classified as ball bearings in
Heading 8482, or in Heading 8466 as parts of machines of Headings
8456 to 8465?
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
Heading 8482 describes ball bearings. The Explanatory Notes
to Heading 8482 specifically provide that linear guides similar
to the guides under consideration are described as ball bearings
in Heading 8482. The Explanatory Notes to Heading 8482, p. 1324
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provide that "[t]his heading covers all ball, roller or needle
roller type bearings. ...The bearings classified in this heading
include:
(A) Ball bearings, with single or double rows of balls. This
group also includes slide mechanisms with bearing
balls, for example:
* * *
3) The free-travelling type, of steel, comprising a
segment, a casing enclosing the bearing balls, and
a guide rail with a groove of triangular section.
(emphasis in original)
The merchandise under consideration consists of slide
mechanisms with bearing balls as described by the Explanatory
Notes to Heading 8482.
OKUMA argues that the Explanatory Notes to Heading 8482
should be ignored because the LMG's are not ball bearings and
should not be classified in Heading 8482. As support for this
argument, OKUMA presents: 1) HQ Ruling 053086 (December 5, 1977),
2) the Department of Commerce antidumping duty determination
regarding Antifriction Bearings from Germany, 54 Fed. Reg. 18992
(May 2, 1989), and 3) the argument that LMG's are not described
as antifriction ball bearings according to the common meaning of
the term.
OKUMA cites HQ Ruling 053086 (December 5, 1977), which held
that certain linear motion guides were not classified as ball
bearings under the TSUS. However, HQ Ruling 053086 is not
instructive. Congress clearly expressed that prior TSUS
decisions should be instructive:
...where the nomenclature previously interpreted in
those decisions remains unchanged and no dissimilar
interpretation is required by the text of the HTS.
(emphasis added).
H. Conf. Rep. No. 100-576, 100th Cong., 2d Sess. 549-
550, (1988), reprinted in 1988 U.S. Code Cong. & Admin.
News 1582-1583.
The nomenclature previously interpreted in HQ Ruling 053086 has
clearly changed in regard to the classification of linear motion
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guides. Unlike the TSUS which was interpreted with the aid of
the Summaries Of Trade And Tariff Information (1969), the HTS is
interpreted with the aid of the Explanatory Notes. The
Explanatory Notes are the official interpretive guide for the
HTS. H. Conf. Rep. No. 100-576, supra, p. 549. Customs believes
they should always be consulted. T.D. 89-80, p. 3. The HTS
Explanatory Notes unequivocally provide that the LMG's are
described as ball bearings under the HTS and are classified in
Heading 8482.
As persuasive support, OKUMA cites the Department of
Commerce antidumping duty determination regarding Antifriction
Bearings from Germany, 54 Fed. Reg. 18992 (May 2, 1989). There,
the DOC made a finding that linear motion guides and antifriction
ball bearings constitute separate classes or kinds of
merchandise, and that linear motion guides are distinct products
having fundamentally different functions. This finding was
made, however, in the context of an antidumping duty
determination and does not relate to classification
determinations under the HTSUSA. In Royal Business Machines,
Inc. v. United States, 1 CIT 80, 507 F. Supp. 1007, (CIT,
December, 1980), aff'd. 669 F. 2d 692, the Court of International
Trade recognized the fundamental difference between antidumping
and classification determinations. The Court stated:
The Court distinguishes between the authority of
the Customs Service to classify according to tariff
classifications (19 U.S.C. 1500) and the power of the
agencies administering the antidumping law to determine
a class or kind of merchandise. The determinations under
the antidumping law may properly result in the creation
of classes which do not correspond to classifications found
in the tariff schedules or may define or modify a known
classification in a manner not contemplated or desired by
the Customs Service.
Royal Business Machines, Inc. v. U.S., 1 CIT at 87, fn. 18
OKUMA also argues that LMG's are not antifriction ball
bearings under the common meaning of the term because LMG's are
not associated with rotary motion, do not have inner and outer
rails, do not have balls in a fixed relation to one another, and
have a positioning function, not an antifriction function.
However, antifriction ball bearings are not restricted to the
features described by OKUMA. Antifriction ball bearings perform
positioning as well as friction reduction functions, and can be
designed for rotary or linear movement. The McGraw Hill
Encyclopedia Of Science And Technology, 6th Ed., Vol. 1 (1987),
p. 633 provides:
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Antifriction bearing
A machine element that permits free motion between moving
and fixed parts. Antifriction bearings are essential to
mechanized equipment; they hold or guide moving machine
parts and minimize friction and wear. (emphasis added)
Various ball and roller bearings are illustrated on p. 639 of the
McGraw Hill Encyclopedia Of Science And Technology, supra,
including a "[b]all bushing that permits unlimited travel, linear
motion" (emphasis added). The illustrated device, like the LMG's
under consideration, has ball bearings which circulate freely
around pathways in the ball bearing casing.
Linear motion guides are described as ball bearings and the
Explanatory Notes to Heading 8482 clearly provide that under the
HTS they are intended to be classified in Heading 8482. Pursuant
to Section XVI Note 2(a), the LMG's are classified in Heading
8482 and not in a heading providing for parts of machinery. The
LMG's are described by Heading 8482, and are classified as ball
bearings, not having integral shafts, in subheading 8482.10.50.
HOLDING:
The linear motion guides are classified as ball bearings,
not having integral shafts, in 8482.10.50, HTSUSA.
A copy of this decision should be forwarded to the internal
advice applicant.
Sincerely,
John Durant, Director
Commercial Rulings Division