CLA-2-84:RR:NC:1:120 L87918
Ms. Sandra Swanson
PBB Global Logistics
400 Oyster Point Blvd. #539
So. San Francisco, CA 94080
RE: The tariff classification of a mini bottling plant from France
Dear Ms. Swanson:
In your letter dated September 29, 2005 you requested a tariff classification ruling on behalf of your client Fosters Wine Estates Americas.
The imported item is a trailer weighing 26,000 kilograms fully loaded. It is approximately 49 feet long with a mini bottling plant inside. The trailer does not contain a motor and will be hooked to a truck that will drive it to wineries to assist with the bottling of wine. Inside the trailer, a mini bottling plant uses a conveyor to move the empty bottles through machinery for the process of rinsing, filling, corking, wrapping, labeling, packaging, and sealing the filled bottles. Wine is pumped to fill the bottles through a flexible hose. The filler machine fills the bottles by gravity. A small vacuum system controls air in the bottle’s neck.
The machines are interconnected by flexible electrical cord to distribute the power by wiring to operate the bottling equipment. The bottling equipment is controlled by one or more programmable logic controllers that operate the machines’ sequences and coordinate operations between the machines. In your initial request for a ruling you state that you received an advisory classification of subheading 8716.80.5090. However, the trailer has the bottling machinery permanently attached. This machinery imparts the essential character of the whole (trailer and machinery). Thus, heading 8716 is not applicable. The individual components of the mini bottling plant contribute together to the clearly defined function of bottling covered by one of the headings in Chapter 84 as per Note 4 to Section XVI.
The applicable subheading for the trailer equipped with the mini bottling plant will be 8422.30.9130, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS), which provides for Machinery for filling, closing, sealing, capsuling or labeling bottles, cans or similar containers: Machines for filling, whether or not capable of performing other operations: Vacuum or gas packaging. The 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. 177).
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 Denise Faingar at 646 733-3010.
Sincerely,
Robert B. Swierupski
Director,
National Commodity
Specialist Division