CLA-2-:OT:RR:NC:N4:414
Mr. George R. Tuttle, III
Law Office of George R. Tuttle, III
One Embarcadero Center, Suite 730
San Francisco, CA 94111-4044
RE: The tariff classification and status under the United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SFTA) of a mounted sapphire window from Singapore
Dear Mr. Tuttle:
In your letter dated March 3, 2014, you requested a ruling on behalf of your client Excelitas Technologies Corp. regarding the status of a mounted sapphire window from Singapore under the United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SFTA). Three samples of the sapphire window, at different stages of processing, were submitted with your request for a ruling. The samples were sent for analysis to our U.S. Customs and Border Protection Laboratory. Our laboratory has now completed its analysis.
The bare sapphire window is imported into the United States from Switzerland. The sapphire window is subjected to processing in the United States and then exported to Singapore. The sapphire window is further processed in Singapore and then returned to the United States. After importation into the United States from Singapore, the mounted sapphire window will be assembled to a cathode assembly and that assembly is installed in short arc Xenon lighting lamps. The short arc Xenon lighting lamps are incorporated into machine vision systems, medical diagnostic and surgical endoscopes, used in microscopy, spectroscopy, etc. You are requesting a ruling on the sapphire window when it is returned to the United States from Singapore.
The clear window is composed of a single crystal of aluminum oxide, which is known as sapphire. At the time of importation from Switzerland, the bare sapphire window, also referred to as a sapphire substrate, is classified under subheading 7116.20.5000, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, (HTSUS), which provides for other articles of precious or semiprecious stones (natural, synthetic or reconstructed).
After importation, various processes occur in the United States including cleaning, firing the window, nickel plating the window, inserting the window into a bezel and then brazing the nickel-plated sapphire window to the bezel. The processing in the United States transforms the bare sapphire window into a mounted sapphire window. The placing of the bezel in the United States removes the good from being wholly of precious and semiprecious stones. The mounted sapphire window would be classifiable under subheading 8539.90.0000, HTSUS, which provides for Electrical filament or discharge lamps, including sealed beam lamp units and ultraviolet or infrared lamps; arc lamps; parts thereof: Parts.
The mounted sapphire window is exported to Singapore. In Singapore, the mounted sapphire window is coated with an ultraviolet coating to reject light output below 320 nanometers, and an anti-reflection coating to reduce the surface reflection losses on one side of the sapphire, which results in more light output from the lamp.
The ultraviolet coating acts as a filter to prevent ultraviolet wavelength light from exiting the lamp. Ultraviolet wavelength light, when interacting with air, generates ozone and ozone is dangerous to breathe. The result of the ultraviolet coating on the mounted sapphire window is that the light emitted contains only visible and infrared wavelengths.
Optical elements are manufactured in such a way that they produce an optical effect. An optical element must do more than allow light (visible, ultraviolet or infrared) to pass through it. It must alter the light’s passage in some way, for example, by being reflected, attenuated, filtered, diffracted, collimated, etc. See the Explanatory Notes to heading 9001, HTSUS, which provides for prisms, mirrors and other optical elements, of any material, unmounted. The optical effect performed by the ultraviolet coating on the mounted sapphire window is to filter ultraviolet wavelengths under 320 nanometers and to allow only visible and infrared light to be transmitted.
The applicable subheading for the mounted coated sapphire window will be 9002.20.8000, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), which provides for Lenses, prisms, mirrors and other optical elements, of any material, mounted, being parts of or fittings for instruments or apparatus: Filters and parts and accessories thereof: Other. The rate of duty will be 2.9 percent 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/.
In addition to classification, you also inquired if the mounted coated sapphire window is eligible for preferential duty treatment under the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SFTA). General Note 25(b), HTSUS, sets forth the criteria for determining whether a good is originating under the SFTA.
For the purposes of this note, subject to the provisions of subdivisions (c), (d), (n) and (o) thereof, goods imported into the customs territory of the United States are eligible for treatment as originating goods of a SFTA country under the terms of this note only if they– (i) were wholly obtained or produced entirely in the territory of Singapore or of the United States, or both; (ii) are goods that, in their condition as imported, are enumerated in subdivision (m) of this note and imported from the territory of Singapore; or (iii) have been transformed in the territory of Singapore or of the United States, or both, so that each nonoriginating material:
(A) undergoes an applicable change in tariff classification set out in subdivision (o) of this note as a result of production occurring entirely in the territory of Singapore or of the United States, or both; or (B) if no change in tariff classification is required, the good otherwise satisfies the applicable requirements set forth in such subdivision (o).
Based on the facts provided, the mounted coated sapphire window described above qualifies for SFTA preferential treatment, because the window will meet the tariff shift requirements of HTSUS General Note 25(b)(iii)(A), subdivision (o) 90.3 which requires a change to subheadings 9002.11 through 9002.90 from any other subheading, except from subheading 9001.90. The goods will therefore be entitled to a free rate of duty under the SFTA upon compliance with all applicable laws, regulations and agreements.
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 Barbara Kiefer at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Gwenn Klein Kirschner
Director
National Commodity Specialist Division