Book Version of 'Finding Nemo' Not Classifiable as Children's Book, CBP Says

A Finding Nemo story and picture book doesn't meet the classification requirements for heading 4903, which covers “Children’s picture, drawing or coloring books,” CBP said in a Sept. 15 ruling. CBP previously ruled that the book wasn't classifiable as a children's book and the company, Phidal Publishing in Montreal, requested reconsideration of that ruling. CBP's earlier ruling found the book to be classifiable in heading 4901 for “printed books.”

Phidal said CBP should review the ruling and classify the book in the children's book heading. CBP said heading 4903 is “restricted to those picture books clearly compiled for the interest or amusement of children or for guidance in their first steps of primary education, provided the pictures form the principal interest and are not subsidiary to the text.” That category “includes, for example, pictorial alphabet books and books of the kind in which the sense of stories is conveyed by a series of episodal pictures accompanied by captions or summary narratives related to the individual pictures. It also includes children’s workbooks consisting essentially of pictures with complementary texts, for writing or other exercises.”

Even though the “book is undoubtedly for children,” the page text “forms the book’s continuous narrative, and the pictures do not convey a sense of the story but merely show its characters and settings,” CBP said. Phidal makes a series of arguments to show that the pictures “do form the principal interest” and should be considered similar to another book called I’m a New Big Brother. But, “unlike the Finding Nemo book, the pictures in the I’m a New Big Brother book convey the sense of story, and the text accompanies the pictures in captions or summary narratives and is not written as a continuous narrative,” the agency said.

CBP affirmed its previous ruling as a result. The Finding Nemo book is classifiable in subheading 4901.99.0070, as a “Printed book . . . .: Other: Other: Other: Other: Hardbound books.” While the subheading is duty-free, it is subject to the Section 301 tariffs on goods form China, CBP said. The ruling doesn't say where the books are imported from.