CLA-2-90:OT:RR:NC:N4:405
Danny Wong OEC Logistics, Inc. 133-33 Brookville Boulevard, Suite #306
Rosedale, NY 11422
RE: The tariff classification of a protractor from China.
Dear Mr. Wong:
In your letter dated February 4, 2011, on behalf of General Tools, you requested a tariff classification ruling. A sample was provided.
The merchandise at issue consists of a plastic protractor. This protractor is designed to allow a user to measure and mark the degrees of an angle on outside, inside, and sloped angles. The protractor consists of a plastic face that contains marked gradations from 0° to 165° in opposite directions. The face is attached to three plastic arms that swivel, allowing a user to measure the degree of angles of physical objects (useful in fields such as carpentry and construction). The plastic protractor does not have any markings that would allow it to measure length.
You propose classification in HTSUS 9017.20.70 since you state that “protractors and plotters seem to be synonymous.” Your basis for this is the definition which you cite from Dictionary.com, i.e.,
1. A person or thing that plots.
2. An instrument, as a protractor, for plotting lines and measuring angles on a chart.
3. Computers. An output device that produces a graphical representation by drawing on paper, as with one or more attached pens.
However, other dictionary definitions do not even mention a protractor, i.e., the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) On-line defines, omitting the historical citations, “plotter” as:
1. a. A person who plans or devises something; a planner; spec. a person who constructs or devises a dramatic or literary plot.
b. A person who plans or takes part in a plot to achieve an unlawful end; a conspirator.
2. a. A surveyor; a person who plots points or measurements on a map or plan. Also, in later use: a person who records the movements of aircraft, ships, etc., on a map (rare before 20th cent.).
b. An instrument or machine for making plots; spec. one for drawing maps or automatically plotting points on them.
c. Computing. A printing device for producing graphs or line drawings in response to computer output; (hence) any device capable of drawing with a pen under the control of a computer.
3. A person who owns or leases, and cultivates, a plot of land; a plot-holder; a smallholder.
The term “Plotter” in the HTSUS presumably includes definition 3 in Dictionary.com and 2-c in the OED. “Plotter” clearly has that meaning in Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
98-1537 (Hewlett Packard Company v. United States, 1999), which was decided regarding entries made previous to the 8 digit breakout for “Plotters” and which classified those items in HTSUS 8471, not 9017 as proposed by Customs.
Even if “Plotter” in the HTSUS includes definition 2 in Dictionary.com and 2-b in the OED, it does not apply to this item, which is never used to plot a course, draw a map, or mark multiple positions on a map or chart. Rather, per the instructions on the back of its packaging, it is used to conform the angle of the long arm to that formed by a physical object and then read the angle that it makes and/or transfer that angle onto another object such as a piece of wood that is to be cut (by following the edge with a pencil or a scribe). Per the catalog sheet you provided, it is sold with various “Builder’s Tools/Woodworking - Layout Tools” for “construction jobs, cabinet-making, and fine carpentry.”
It is clear that not all or even most “protractors” are “plotters.” The most common examples are the cheap, transparent, plastic semi-circles marked with angles around their edges and routinely required for elementary school arts and crafts exercises. These are routinely called “protractors,” but they are never referred to as “plotters.” Like these items, it is not commercially feasible to use them in plotting a course, etc.
You indicate that General Tools has previously entered shipments of this item under HTSUS 9017.20.40, which provides for disc calculators, slide rules and other mathematical calculating instruments. That classification is clearly incorrect since, per Harmonized System Explanatory Note C to 9017 mathematical calculating instruments include the following:
Slide rules, disc calculators, cylindrical calculators and other calculating instruments based on the slide rule or other mathematical calculating principle including, for instance, pocket type adding and subtracting devices operated by the selection of numbers with a stylus according to a given procedure. This group also includes rules and discs for calculating photographic exposure times on adjustment by reference to the condition of the sky, time of day, aperture setting, type of subject and sensitivity of emulsion.
The applicable subheading for the plastic protractor will be 9017.20.8080, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), which provides for "other" Drawing and Marking-out instruments (for example, drafting machines, pantographs, protractors and drawing sets). The rate of duty will be 4.6% ad valorem.
Duty rates are provided for your convenience and are subject to change. The text of the most recent HTSUS and the accompanying duty rates are provided on World Wide Web at http://www.usitc.gov/tata/hts/.
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 J. Sheridan at (646) 733-3012.
Sincerely,
Robert B. Swierupski
Director
National Commodity Specialist Division