CLA-2-84:RR:NC:1:110 R01552

Mr. Dennis Heck
Yamaha Corporation of America
6600 Orangethorpe Ave., P.O. Box 6600
Buena Park, CA 90622-6600

RE: The tariff classification of various disk drive assemblies.

Dear Mr. Heck:

In your letter dated February 25, 2005 you requested a tariff classification ruling.

The merchandise under consideration is five Yahama disk drives assemblies. Yahama uses various disk drive assemblies in many of their musical products for playing prerecorded music, recording music played by the musician and for operating their Disklavier line of player pianos. Part Number (P/N) VY859300 is a Floppy Disk Drive used in the Yahama PSR-630 Portable Electronic Keyboard. P/N VM488300 is a Floppy Disk Drive used in a Yamaha QY-300 Music Sequencer as well as the W5 and W7 Keyboard Music Synthesizers. P/N WC695100 (Floppy Disk Drive), WC740700 (CD-ROM Drive) and X6197A00 (Hard Disk Drive (HDD)) are all used in the Yamaha Disklavier Piano Mark IV.

From the information provided with your ruling request, the Yahama PSR-630 Portable Electronic Keyboard, QY-300 Music Sequencer, W5 and W7 Music Synthesizers all utilize a standard floppy disk drive unit typically installed within a personal computer (PC) expansion bay. The disassembled explosion views of the overall assembly diagrams provided by you clearly display the units installed within the final assembly of the musical products.

The Yamaha Disklavier Piano Mark IV is a stand-alone acoustic piano with a Media Center (CD Player/FDD Player-Recorder) and Input/Output Center, which give the acoustic piano an electronic/digital accompaniment, playback and tone generation capabilities. The Yamaha line of Disklavier Piano’s performs as a stand-alone acoustic piano as well as a player piano. They are capable of playing pre-recorded music from various recorded media as well as duplicating music played by the pianist to be played back at a later time from the Floppy Disks. The HDD is installed in the Mark IV I/O Center. This HDD is also a standard hard drive unit typically installed within a PC. The I/O Center is a LINUX OS based system mounted inside the acoustic piano and acts as the system controller. The CD-ROM drive is installed in the pianos Media Center, which is a low profile unit mounted under the keyboard of the acoustic piano allowing easy access to the CD and FDD drives. The CD-ROM is used only for prerecorded conventional audio CDs. It does not record the musician performance.

The applicable subheading for the three Floppy Disk Drives (P/Ns VY859300, VM488300 and WC695100) will be 8471.70.4035, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS), which provides for “Automatic data processing machines and units thereof…Storage units: Magnetic disk drive units: Other: Not assembled in cabinets, and without attached external power supply: Flexible (floppy) magnetic disk drive units.” The general rate of duty will be free.

The applicable subheading for the Hard Disk Drive (P/N X6197A00) will be 8471.70.4065, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS), which provides for “Automatic data processing machines and units thereof…Storage units: Magnetic disk drive units: Other: Not assembled in cabinets, and without attached external power supply: Hard magnetic disk drive units.” The general rate of duty will be free. The applicable subheading for the CD-ROM Drive (P/N WC740700) will be 8520.90.0080, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS), which provides for “Magnetic tape recorders and other sound recording apparatus, whether or not incorporating a sound reproducing device: Other: Other.” 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. 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 Eileen S. Kaplan at 646-733-3016.

Sincerely,

Robert B. Swierupski
Director,
National Commodity
Specialist Division