CLA-2 RR:CR:GC 966133 DSS
Mr. David Pentland
President
Carson Customs Brokers (USA) Inc.
P.O. Box 635
Blaine, WA 98230
RE: Ruling Request for Closed-Circuit Television Lenses, “Quick Change Lens Packs,” and Printed Circuit Assemblies Without Lens Attached
Dear Mr. Pentland:
In your letter to the Director, National Commodity Specialist Division, New York, dated November 1, 2002, on behalf of Silent Witness Enterprises Ltd. (UK), you inquire as to the classification under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) of certain closed-circuit television camera lenses and related merchandise. Your letter was forwarded to this office for reply. Samples were provided for our examination.
FACTS:
You are requesting tariff classification for three product lines - lenses for closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, and what you describe as “Quick Change Lens Packs,” and printed circuit assemblies (PCAs). According to your letter, these products are manufactured in Korea and imported to Canada. These products are then shipped into the United States without having been further manufactured.
The lenses, model numbers QL 1029 (focal length 2.9 mm), QL 1036 (3.9 mm), QL 1060 (6.0 mm), QL 1080 (8.0 mm), QL 1120 (12.0 mm), and QL 1160 (16.0 mm), are lenses in a mounting and designed for use in CCTV cameras. The lenses can be attached or mounted to a PCA board and then placed inside a CCTV camera housing to make the camera operational.
Quick Change Lens Packs consist of a PCA that has a lens mount attached to it and is designed for use in a CCTV camera. The Packs come in models QLV3 (2.9, 6.0, 8.0 mm), QL02910 (2.9 mm X10), QL03610 (3.6 X10), QL06010 (6.0 mm X10), QL0810 (8.0 mm X10), and QL12010 (12.0 mm
x10). These Lens Packs can be placed inside the “Silent Witness Surveillance
Camera.”
The printed circuit assemblies (PCAs) you describe are printed circuit boards with components attached, but no lens mounts. PCAs must have a lens mount attached and a lens attached before they can be placed in a camera to make the camera fully operational.
Samples of the Quick Change Lens Pack and printed circuit assembly were provided. In your letter you state that the lenses should be classified under subheading 9002.11.60, HTSUS, and cite NY Ruling letter (NY) 809308, dated May 3, 1995 to support this classification. You also state that you believe that the Quick Change Lens packs should be classified under subheading 9002.11.60, HTSUS.
The HTSUS provisions at issue are as follows:
Parts suitable for use solely or principally with the apparatus of headings 8525 to 8528:
* * * *
8529.90 Other:
Printed circuit assemblies:
Of television apparatus:
* * * *
Other:
Other:
* * * * * * * * *
9002 Lenses, prisms, mirrors and other optical elements, of any material, mounted, being parts of or fittings for instruments or apparatus, other than such elements of glass not optically worked; parts and accessories thereof:
Objective lenses and parts and accessories thereof:
For cameras, projectors or photographic enlargers or reducers:
* * * *
Other:
9002.11.60 Mounted lenses suitable for use in, and entered separately from, closed-circuit television cameras, with or without attached electrical or non-electrical closed-circuit television camera connectors, and with or without attached motors.
ISSUE:
Whether these articles are properly classified as mounted lenses in heading 9002, HTSUS, or as parts of television cameras in heading 8529, HTSUS.
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
Classification under the HTSUS is made in accordance with the General Rules of Interpretation (GRIs). GRI 1 provides that the classification of goods shall be determined according to the terms of the headings of the tariff schedule and any relative section or chapter notes. In the event that the goods cannot be classified solely on the basis of GRI 1, and if the headings and legal notes do not otherwise require, the remaining GRIs may then be applied.
In interpreting the headings and subheadings, Customs looks to the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System Explanatory Notes (ENs). Although not legally binding, they provide a commentary on the scope of each heading of the HTSUS. It is Customs practice to follow, whenever possible, the terms of the ENs when interpreting the HTSUS. See T.D. 89-90, 54 Fed. Reg. 35127, 35128 (August 23, 1989).
Heading 9002, HTSUS, in pertinent part describes lenses, mounted, being parts of or fittings for instruments or apparatus. Heading 8529, HTSUS, in pertinent part describes parts of television cameras, and it is a Section XVI Heading. Section XVI Note 1(m) excludes from Section XVI articles of Chapter 90. Pursuant to Section XVI Note 1(m), if the merchandise is an article of Heading 9002, HTSUS, then it is excluded from Heading 8529, HTSUS. Further, EN 85.29 states that the heading excludes "[l]enses...for television cameras (heading 90.02).”
EN 90.02 states in pertinent part, “[t]he heading includes: (1) objective lenses . . . for photographic or cinematographic cameras or for projectors.” The EN goes on to define objective lens as “[t]he lens system that faces the object, giving an image of the latter.” In NY 809308, dated May 3, 1995, and HQ 088205, dated October 2, 1991, we classified CCTV camera lenses under heading 9002, HTSUS. Based on the foregoing, the lenses are classified under subheading, 9002.11.60, HTSUS.
The Quick Change Lens packs and printed circuit assemblies do not fall under this heading as they are not parts of the optical element of the lens; the lenses alone fall under subheading 9002.11.60 HTSUS. Instead the Quick Change Lens Pack and PCAs are parts of the CCTV, not the camera lens.
Chapter 90 Note 2(a), HTSUS, provides that parts and accessories which are goods included in any of the headings of Chapter 90 or of Chapter 84, 85 or 91 are in all cases to be classified in their respective headings. CCTV cameras are within a class or kind of merchandise classified in heading 8525, HTSUS.
Note 2, to Section XVI, HTSUS, states that:
Subject to note 1 to section XVI, note 1 to chapter 84 and to note 1 to chapter 85, parts of machines (not being parts of the articles of heading 8484, 8544, 8545, 8546 or 8547) are to be classified according to the following rules:
Parts which are goods included in any of the headings of chapters 84 and 85 (other than headings 8409, 8431, 8448, 8466, 8473, 8485, 8503, 8522, 8529, 8538 and 8548) are in all cases to be classified in their respective headings;
Other parts, if suitable for use solely or principally with a particular kind of machine, or with a number of machines of the same heading (including a machine of heading 8479 or 8543) are to be classified with the machines of that kind or in heading 8409, 8431, 8448, 8466, 8473, 8503, 8522, 8529 or 8538 as appropriate. However, parts which are equally suitable for use principally with the goods of headings 8517 and 8525 to 8528 are to be classified in heading 8517;
All other parts are to be classified in heading 8409, 8431, 8448, 8466, 8473, 8503, 8522, 8529 or 8538 as appropriate or, failing that, in heading 8485 or 8548.
Based on the information provided, the lens packs and PCAs are parts of a television camera, provided for in heading 8529, HTSUS. In Clipper Belt Lacer Co., Inc. v. United States, 14 CIT 146 (1990), the court quoted from earlier cases, stating, “It is a well-established rule that a ‘part’ of an article is something necessary to the completion of that article. It is an integral, constituent, or component part, without which the article to which it is to be joined, could not function as such article.” The definition of “parts” was discussed recently in Rollerblade, Inc. v. United States, 283 F.3d 1349 (Fed. Cir. 2002). In the case, the court defined parts as “an essential element or constituent; integral portion which can be separated, replaced, etc.” Id. at 1353 (citing Webster’s New World Dictionary 984 (3d College Ed. 1988)). The “Quick Change” lens packs and PCAs are parts of the CCTV camera because, as you have indicated, they are “necessary for the efficient operation” of the camera; there is nothing in the information provided to indicate that they are necessary to the efficient operation of the lens itself. See id. (citing Trans Atlantic Co. v. United States, 48 C.C.P.A. 30 (1960)). Based on the foregoing analysis, the instant Quick Change Lens Packs and printed circuit assemblies are classified under subheading 8529.90.13, HTSUS.
HOLDING:
Under the authority of GRI 1, the instant CCTV lenses are provided for in heading 9002, HTSUS. They are classified as mounted lenses under subheading 9002.11.60, HTSUS, as “[L]enses, prisms, mirrors and other optical elements, of any material, mounted, being parts of or fittings for instruments or apparatus, other than such elements of glass not optically worked; parts and accessories thereof: Objective lenses and parts and accessories thereof: For cameras, projectors or photographic enlargers or reducers: . . . Other: Mounted lenses suitable for use in, and entered separately from, closed-circuit television cameras, with or without attached electrical or non-electrical closed-circuit television camera connectors, and with or without attached motors.”
The instant Quick Change Lens Packs and printed circuit assemblies are provided for in heading 8529, HTSUS. They are classified as parts of television cameras under subheading, 8529.90.13, as “[P]arts suitable for use solely or principally with the apparatus of headings 8525 to 8528: . . . Other: Printed circuit assemblies: Of television apparatus: . . . Other: Other:.”
Sincerely,
/s/
Myles B. Harmon
Director,
Commercial Rulings Division