CLA-2-63:RR:NC:N3:351 K86433
Mr. Harold Chartow
V.P., Sales
Wool Novelty Co., Inc.
3000 Hempstead Tpke.
Levittown, NY 11756-1338
RE: The tariff classification of hosiery loops from Pakistan.
Dear Mr. Chartow:
In your letter dated May 26, 2004, you requested a ruling on tariff classification.
In your letter, you described the items in question as nylon waste and cotton waste. However, in a telephone conversation with National Import Specialist Mitchel Bayer, you called them hosiery loops and explained that these are cuttings left over from the knitting of hosiery. No samples were submitted.
You stated your belief that the cotton is classifiable in subheading 5202.10.0000, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS), which provides for cotton yarn waste (including thread waste). You further suggested that the nylon waste is classifiable in subheading 5505.10.0020, HTS, which provides for waste of nylon fibers (including noils, yarn waste, and garnetted stock).
The term waste as used in these provisions are defined in the Explanatory Notes (EN) to the HTS, which constitute the official interpretation of the tariff at the international level. In that regard, the EN to heading 5202 provides for:
Combing waste, usually referred to as comber noils; strippings recovered from carding or combing cylinders; broken fibres detached during the drawing process; fragments of slivers or rovings; carding fly; tangled yarn and other yarn waste; yarn and fibres resulting from the garnetting of rags.
The heading excludes :
* * *
(e) Used or new rags and other scrap textile articles (heading 63.10).
Regarding heading 5505, the EN state:
This heading covers waste of man-made fibres . . . and includes :
(1) Fibre wastes (soft waste), such as relatively long fibres obtained as waste during the formation and processing of filaments; short fibres obtained as waste from the carding, combing and other processes preparatory to the spinning of staple fibres (e.g., noils, small broken pieces of laps, slivers or rovings).
(2) Yarn wastes (hard waste), i.e., broken, knotted or tangled yarns collected as waste during the spinning, doubling, reeling, weaving, knitting, etc., operations.
(3) Garnetted stock, i.e., fibres obtained by tearing rags or yarns into their component fibers.
The heading does not include :
* * *
(d) New or used rags (Chapter 63).
Your product is not in the form of recovered fibers. Rags, excluded from both above-cited headings, are defined in the EN under heading 6310:
Rags of textile fabrics (including knitted or crocheted fabrics, felt or nonwovens). Rags may consist of articles of furnishing or clothing or of other old textile articles so worn out, soiled or torn as to be beyond cleaning or repair, or of small new cuttings (e.g., dressmakers’ or tailors’ snippings) [emphasis added].
* * *
To fall in the heading, these products must be worn, dirty or torn, or in small pieces [emphasis added].
Your description of hosiery loops more precisely fits in heading 6310. The applicable subheading for the hosiery loops of cotton will be 6310.10.2010, HTS, 6310.10.2020, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS), which provides for used or new rags, sorted: Other, of cotton. The general rate of duty will be Free.
The applicable subheading for the hosiery loops of nylon will be 6310.10.2020, HTS, which provides for used or new rags, sorted: Other, of man-made fibers. The general rate of duty will be Free.
This ruling is being issued under the provisions of Part 177 of the Customs Regulations (19 C.F.R.).
A copy of the ruling or the control number indicated above should be provided with the entry documents filed at the time this merchandise is imported. If you have any questions regarding the ruling, contact National Import Specialist Mitchel Bayer at 646-733-3102.
Sincerely,
Robert B. Swierupski
Director,
National Commodity
Specialist Division