CLA-2 RR:CR:GC 965283 JAS
Port Director of Customs
40 South Gay Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
RE: Protest 1303-00-100267; Rolls for Rolling Mill
Dear Port Director:
This is our decision on Protest 1303-00-100267, filed on behalf of Wheatland Tube Company against your classification, under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), of rolls for rolling mills. The entry was liquidated on March 8, 2000, and this protest timely filed on December 8, 2000.
FACTS:
The merchandise at issue is rolls of nodular cast iron construction used in a 12-stand, butt weld mill, one component of a welded tube mill which makes steel pipes and tubes. The butt weld mill receives flat-rolled hot rolled steel from a heating furnace and forms it into tube-like shapes. Welding units complete the bent forms into tubes by welding the seams. Individual tubes are saw-cut, then sized, straightened, and galvanized and threaded, as needed.
The rolls were entered under a provision of heading 8455, HTSUS, as rolls for rolling mills. The merchandise was reclassified under a provision of heading 8207, HTSUS, for interchangeable tools for hand tools or for machine-tools, and the entry liquidated.
The protestant supports the entered classification by noting that rolls used to form and roll hot rolled flat rolled steel into welded steel pipe meet the description in subheading 8455.30.00 as metal-rolling mills and rolls therefor. Moreover, the protestant claims the rolls do not qualify under heading 8207 as they do not qualify as interchangeable tools for hand tools or for machine tools.
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The HTSUS provisions under consideration are as follows:
Interchangeable tools for handtools…or for machine-
tools…;base metal parts thereof:
8207.90 Other interchangeable tools, and parts thereof:
Not suitable for cutting metal, and parts thereof
8207.90.75 Other
* * * *
8455 Metal-rolling mills and rolls therefor; parts thereof:
8455.30.00 Rolls for rolling mills
* * * *
[M]achine tools…for working metal by bending,
folding, straightening…, not specified above:
Parts suitable for use solely or principally with the
machines of headings 8456 to 8465…:
8466.94 For machines of heading 8462 or 8463:
8466.94.40 Other
ISSUE:
Whether a welded tube mill is a good of heading 8455 or 8462; whether rolls for welded tube mills are goods of heading 8455.
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
Under General Rule of Interpretation (GRI) 1, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), goods are to be classified according to the terms of the headings and any relative section or chapter notes, and provided the headings or notes do not require otherwise, according to GRIs 2 through 6.
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The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System Explanatory Notes (ENs) constitute the official interpretation of the Harmonized System at the international level. Though not dispositive, the ENs provide a commentary on the scope of each heading of the HTSUS. Customs believes the ENs should always be consulted. See T.D. 89-80. 54 Fed. Reg. 35127, 35128 (Aug. 23, 1989).
The classification of the rolls at issue involves a preliminary discussion of the welded tube mill in which they are used. In HQ 965198, dated May 1, 2002, copy enclosed, the components of a welded tube mill used to “form, weld, size, and [continuously] cut” tubes were found to be within the terms of heading 8462, HTSUS, as a machine tool for working metal by bending. The ruling notes that welded tube mills are not rolling mills of the type described in the heading 8455 ENs, and that these ENs specifically exclude goods of heading 8462 from inclusion in heading 8455. The principles of HQ 965198 are incorporated by reference in this decision. Because the welded tube mill in which these rolls are used is a machine tool of heading 8462, and not a metal-rolling mill of heading 8455, the rolls cannot be classifiable in subheading 8455.30.00, HTSUS, as rolls for rolling mills.
Heading 8207 covers interchangeable tools for handtools or for machine-tools. We note that goods of heading 8207 are excluded both from heading 8455 and from heading 8462 by Section XVI, Note 1(o), HTSUS. The 8207 ENs state the heading covers tools which are incapable of use independently but are designed to be fit into machine-tools of headings 8457 to 8465, among others, for a variety of machine tool applications. The rolls at issue, being for use in machine-tools of heading 8462, meet this description.
HOLDING:
Under the authority of GRI 1, rolls for machine-tools for working metal by bending are provided for in heading 8207. They are classifiable in subheading 8207.90.75, HTSUS.
The protest should be DENIED. In accordance with Section 3A(11)(b) of Customs Directive 099 3550-065, dated August 4, 1993, Subject: Revised Protest Directive, you are to mail this decision, together with the Customs Form 19, to the protestant no later than 60 days from the date of this letter. Any reliquidation of the entry or entries in accordance with the decision must be accomplished prior to mailing the decision. Sixty days from the date of the decision the Office of Regulations and
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Rulings will make the decision available to Customs personnel, and to the public on the Customs Home Page on the World Wide Web at www.customs.gov, by means of the Freedom of Information Act, and other methods of public distribution.
Sincerely,
John Durant, Director
Commercial Rulings Division
Enclosure