CLA-2 CO:R:C:G 086284 KWM
TARIFF: 3917.10.5000
Mr. Lewis Stein
General Counsel
Johnson & Johnson
One Johnson & Johnson Plaza
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08922-7002
RE: Collagen sausage casings
Dear Mr. Stein:
This is in response to your letter dated November 14, 1989,
requesting reconsideration of the tariff classification of
collagen sausage casings in Headquarters Ruling Letter (HRL)
085411. Your letter has been forwarded to us by our New York
office for a ruling. We have also received your facsimile dated
March 12, 1990, providing additional information about the
merchandise at issue.
FACTS:
A full description of the goods is set out in HRL 085411,
and will not be repeated here. Your most recent request provides
this office with additional information regarding the process by
which sausage casings are manufactured. Specifically, you have
asserted that glutaraldehyde is used as a hardening agent during
the production of some sausage casings imported by you. We note
that this information was not included in your original request
for a tariff classification. Your reconsideration request is
premised on the belief that the use of glutaraldehyde brings
those goods so processed within the purview of subheading
3917.10.50, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States
Annotated (HTSUSA), and they should therefore be classified as
artificial guts (sausage casings) of hardened protein or of
cellulosic plastic material, other.
ISSUE:
1) Should the goods at issue in HRL 085411 be classified
under subheading 3917.10.5000, HTSUSA?
2) If not, what effect does the additional information
regarding glutaraldehyde have on the classification of sausage
casings treated with glutaraldehyde?
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
Revocation of HRL 085411
Your original request for a binding classification ruling
included a request letter and a generic flowchart, outlining the
basic procedural steps in the production of collagen sausage
casings. Based on the information provided in that submission,
we classified the collagen sausage casings at issue in HRL 085411
in subheading 3504.00.5000, HTSUSA. After reviewing the findings
of HRL 085411, we are of the opinion that that ruling is correct
on the basis of the facts presented and we decline to revoke it.
As HRL 085411 indicates, consideration was given to
classification of these items in heading 3917, HTSUSA, as you
have suggested. However, as further explained in HRL 085411, the
Explanatory Notes to heading 0504 indicate that heading 3917,
HTSUSA, includes "products of 'artificial guts' made by extrusion
of a paste of hide or skin fiber, subsequently hardened with a
solution of formaldehyde or phenols" (emphasis added). Your
original request did not indicate that formaldehyde or phenols
were used during the manufacture of the sausage casings at issue.
Further, your original request did not include any references to
glutaraldehyde, particularly as to its use as a hardening agent.
Lastly we note that these substances were not detected under
laboratory analysis. In short, our classifiction was correct
based on the facts presented by you. We are therefore of the
opinion that it should not be revoked.
Per your most recent submission (fax dated March 12, 1990),
we are of the opinion that the goods described by you as:
Undyed casings which are not glutaraldehyde treated which
are generally used with fresh sausages.
are those described and classified in HRL 085411, under heading
3504.00.5000, HTSUSA. That ruling is limited to those goods.
Sausage casings treated with glutaraldehyde
Although we decline to revoke or modify HRL 085411, we
further believe, on the basis of your most recent submission that
the sausage casings treated with glutaraldehyde as a hardening
agent are properly classifiable in heading 3917, HTSUSA. It is
our opinion that glutaraldehyde, a chemical compound used as a
fixative for tissues, for crosslinking protein and polyhydroxy
materials, and for tanning of soft leathers, is a hardening
substance within the intended scope of heading 3917, HTSUSA.
We note that when glutaraldehyde is used as a hardening
agent, its presence cannot be detected in the finished product.
Therefore, we are unable to verify your submission by laboratory
analysis. We are basing our classification of this merchandise
solely on the information provided by you, as required by federal
regulation.
We hold that the goods described by you as:
[M]ahogany dyed casings which are hardened with
glutaraldehyde and which are generally used in meat snacks
are properly classified in heading 3917, HTSUSA. This is not a
modification of HRL 085411. This is, in effect, a new binding
ruling strictly limited to those sausage casings hardened with
glutaraldehyde.
At the time of importation, you should clearly make known
whether the sausage casings imported in the subject transaction
are those hardened with glutaraldehyde, or those not so hardened.
The appropriate ruling letter should be included.
HOLDING:
The specific goods at issue in HRL 085411 remain classified
according to that holding: edible collagen sausage casings,
undyed and not treated with glutaraldehyde, are provided for in
subheading 3504.00.5000, HTSUSA, as other protein substances and
their derivatives, not elsewhere specified or included, hide
powder, other. The rate of duty on those goods remains 7.9
percent ad valorem.
Those collagen sausage casings treated with glutaraldehyde
are classified in subheading 3917.10.5000, HTSUSA, as tubes of
artificial guts (sausage casings) or hardened protein or of
cellulosic plastics materials, other. The rate of duty on these
goods is 4.2 percent ad valorem.
Sincerely,
John A. Durant
Director
Commercial Rulings Division