CLA-2 RR:CR:GC 963678 BJB
Mr. Harvey B. Fox
Adduci, Mastriani & Schaumberg, L.L.P.
1200 Seventeenth Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
RE: NY F80083 Revoked; rotisserie; barbecue; oven; roaster.
Dear Mr. Fox:
This is in response to your letter of February 2, 2000, to the Customs National Commodity Specialist Division, New York, on behalf Jaeil America, Inc., requesting reconsideration of New York Ruling Letter (NY) F80083, dated December 7, 1999, concerning the tariff classification of a “rotisserie oven” under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). Your letter and additional submissions were forwarded to this office for reply. You also submitted a manual, a videotaped “info-mercial,” patent disclosure letters and advertisements for our examination. We discussed the classification of this article with you and your client, and a sample was viewed at a meeting at Headquarters on March 31, 2000. In preparing this ruling we also gave consideration to your supplemental submissions of May 3, 18, 23, and June 1 and 5, 2000.
We have reviewed NY F80083 and have determined that the classification set forth therein is in error. This ruling revokes NY F80083.
Pursuant to section 625(c)(1), Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1625(c)(1)), as amended by section 623 of Title VI, a notice was published on August 2, 2000, in the Customs Bulletin, Volume 34, Number 31, proposing to revoke NY F80083, dated December 7, 1999, and to revoke the tariff treatment pertaining to the tariff classification of a “rotisserie oven.” No comments were received in response to this notice.
FACTS:
The article in question is the “Ronco Showtime Rotisserie & BBQ” (“rotisserie”). The rotisserie incorporates a 900-watt radiant heating element and a timer to monitor the cooking time. The unit is a tabletop model and cooks food by means of radiant heat supplied by an electrical heating element concentrated on the food by a metal heat reflector. The electric gear motor and rotisserie assembly rotates the food so that it can be cooked evenly. The heat reflector slides behind the heating element. Meat is placed on two spit rods, which are connected to a gear wheel. A second gear wheel is placed on the spit rods before it is locked into place inside the roaster. There is a drip tray at the bottom and a glass door at the front of the unit. A wire food basket may also be fitted to the two spit rods. The wire food basket is used to hold vegetables and multiple, smaller, cuts of meat for an unobstructed and even exposure to the electric heating element.
In NY F80083, the rotisserie oven was determined to be classifiable under subheading 8516.60.60, HTSUS, which provides for “Other ovens; cooking stoves, ranges, cooking plates, boiling rings, grillers and roasters: . . . Other,” as a “roaster.”
ISSUE:
Whether the “Showtime Rotisserie and BBQ” is classifiable as a “roaster” at subheading 8516.60.60, HTSUS, or under subheading 8516.60.40, HTSUS, as provided for as “[c]ooking stoves, ranges and ovens . . . . Other.”
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
The General Rules of Interpretation (GRI's) to the HTSUS govern the classification of goods in the tariff schedule. GRI 1 states in pertinent part that "for legal purposes, classification shall be determined according to the terms of the headings and any relative section or chapter notes."
In understanding the language of the HTSUS, the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System Explanatory Notes may be consulted. The Explanatory Notes (ENs), although not dispositive, are to be used to determine the proper interpretation of the HTSUS. 54 Fed. Reg. 35127, 35128, (August 23, 1989).
Within Chapter 85, HTSUS, heading 8516, in pertinent part, provides for other electrothermic appliances of a kind used for domestic purposes. Review of both the HTSUS notes and the ENs indicates that neither defines the phrase “domestic purposes.” A tariff term that is not defined in the HTSUS or in the ENs is construed in accordance with its common and commercial meaning. Nippon Kogasku (USA) Inc., v. United States, 69 CCPA 89, 673 F. 2d 380 (1982). Common and commercial meaning may be determined by consulting dictionaries, lexicons, scientific authorities and other reliable sources. C.J. Tower & Sons v. United States, 69 CCPA 128, 673 F. 2d 1268 (1982). The term “domestic” is described as “of or relating to the household or the family.” Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th, p.344, (1999). You have stated that the rotisserie is “marketed and sold only to consumers for domestic, i.e., household, purposes.”
After careful consideration of the information, dimensions, capacity, power output and other features of the rotisserie, we conclude that the rotisserie oven is an electrothermic appliance belonging to a class or kind principally used for domestic purposes in the household.
Accordingly, the rotisserie is an electrothermic appliance classifiable under heading 8516, HTSUS, which provides for “other electrothermic appliances of a kind used for domestic purposes; parts thereof:”
Next, we must determine under which of the following subheadings the article is classifiable:
Other ovens; cooking stoves, ranges, cooking plates, boiling rings, grillers and roasters:
( ( ( ( ( ( (
8516.60.40 Cooking stoves, ranges and ovens
( ( ( ( ( ( (
8516.60.60 Other
( ( ( ( ( ( (
EN 85.16, page 1468, states that other electro-thermic appliances used for domestic purposes include "other ovens and cookers, cooking plates, boiling rings, grillers and roasters. . ." EN 85.16 does not provide direction as to what characterizes "other ovens" and "roasters." As noted above, classification is made in accordance with the GRI and the terms of the headings with the guidance of the ENs to understand the scope of the headings and GRI. Since the article cannot be classified pursuant to GRI 1 alone, i.e., according to the terms of the heading, and since there is no disagreement that the rotisserie is classifiable under heading 8516, HTSUS, we look to GRI 6, which states:
“For legal purposes, the classification of goods in the subheadings of a heading shall be determined according to the terms of those subheadings and any related subheading notes and, mutatis mutandis, to the above rules, on the understanding that only subheadings at the same level are comparable. For the purposes of this rule, the relative section, chapter and subchapter notes also apply, unless the context otherwise requires.”
Subheading 8516.60.40, provides only for cooking stoves, ranges and
ovens . . ..” Subheading 8516.60.60 provides for all remaining articles in subheading 8516.60, cooking plates, boiling rings, grillers and roasters.
The provision in heading 8516, electrothermic appliances of a kind used for domestic purposes, is governed by “use.” Group Italglass U.S.A., Inc., v. United States, Slip Op. 93-46 (1993). Classification based upon use is governed by the language of Additional U.S. Rule of Interpretation 1(a) which requires that:
“In the absence of special language or context which otherwise requires –
A tariff classification controlled by use (other than actual use) is to be determined in accordance with the use in the United States at, or immediately prior to, the date of importation, of goods of that class or kind to which the imported goods belong, and the controlling use is the principal use.”
To conclude that the rotisserie is classifiable in subheading 8516.60.40, HTSUS, the article must belong to a class or kind of goods for which the principal use is as an oven, i.e., the rotisserie oven’s principal use must be for cooking food like an oven.
Jaeil argues that the “Ronco Showtime Rotisserie and BBQ” is advertised as an oven, has “a lighted oven cavity,” can perform many varied cooking functions of a “conventional oven,” and is thus, an "oven" for tariff purposes. The term "oven" is not defined in the HTSUS or the ENs. In examining the common meaning of the term, we find that “oven” is broadly defined in the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition, p. 827 (1999), as: "a chamber used for baking, heating, or drying.” In HQ 956227, dated September 19, 1994, Customs relied upon a similar definition provided in Webster’s II New Riverside University Dictionary, p. 837 (1984), that an oven is “[a]n enclosed compartment supplied with heat and used for cooking food and for heating or drying objects placed within.”
The attachments and schematic drawings that accompany the patent disclosure letters refer to the rotisserie as a “rotisserie oven.” (See Instruction Booklet, p.3; Instruction Sheets, p. 1-4 (“Instructions Sheets”); and U.S. Patent Disclosure letters and attachments (submissions dated: October 9, 1998, and July 12, 1995). Other references to the article as an oven were also presented.
Jaeil maintains that the commercial meaning of “roaster” within the kitchenware industry, refers to a large, deep, oval pan with lid, sized to contain e.g., a chicken or turkey, and capable of being placed in a standard oven. Further, Jaeil noted that the electrothermic version of a “roaster,” is similar to the non-electric version with its oval shape and “cookwell,” though constructed with an internal heating element within a closed compartment. We agree that certain “roasters” may be classified as ovens.
In the NY ruling (NY F80083), subject of this reconsideration, the Ronco rotisserie was classified as a “roaster.” In NY F80111, dated December 1, 1999, Customs determined that the 18-quart portable “NESCO Roaster Oven” with cookwell, lid and “circle of heat” heating element within an enclosed compartment, was classifiable as an “oven” under subheading 8516.60.40, HTSUS. We reviewed NY F80111, and the merchandise at issue there. Even though that appliance was commercially known as a “roaster,” Customs determined it also met the common meaning of the term “oven,” as an enclosed compartment capable of cooking food.
The “Ronco Showtime Rotisserie and BBQ,” rotisserie oven, has a radiant heat element and an “oven cavity,” and is principally used to cook meats and vegetables in the home. Accordingly, this rotisserie oven is also classifiable as an "oven" under subheading 8516.60.40, HTSUS.
HOLDING:
The “Ronco Showtime Rotisserie and BBQ,” rotisserie oven in an enclosed compartment, is classifiable under subheading 8516.60.40, HTSUS, as “other electrothermic appliances of a kind used for domestic purposes; part thereof: Other ovens; cooking stoves, ranges, cooking plates, boiling rings, grillers and roasters[.]”
EFFECT ON OTHER RULINGS:
NY F80083, dated December 7, 1999, is hereby REVOKED. In accordance with 19 U.S.C. 1625(c), this ruling will become effective 60 days after its publication in the customs bulletin.
Sincerely,
John Durant, Director
Commercial Rulings Division