Newly Released CBP HQ Rulings on Aug. 22
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Aug. 22 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):
H326543: 46 U.S.C. § 55103 Passenger Vessel Services Act
| Ruling: The subject individuals are not “passengers” within the meaning of 46 U.S.C. |
| Issue: whether the transportation of the guest speakers embarking in New York City and disembarking in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, would violate the coastwise laws |
| Items: N/A |
| Reason: The speakers are hired for the purposes of entertaining cruise passengers. Prior Headquarters rulings have held that entertainers are not passengers. |
| Ruling Date: Aug. 17, 2022 |
H311415: Revocation of NY N067952; Tariff classification of a “dog wheelchair”
| Ruling: The dog wheelchairs are classified under subheading 9021.10.00, which provides for “Orthopedic appliances, including crutches, surgical belts and trusses; splints and other fracture appliances; artificial parts of the body; hearing aids and other appliances which are worn or carried, or implanted in the body, to compensate for a defect or disability; parts and accessories thereof: Orthopedic or fracture appliances, and parts and accessories thereof.” |
| Issue: whether a wheelchair intended for dogs is classified in heading 7615 as “household articles … of aluminum” or heading 9021, as an “[o]rthopedic appliance” |
| Item: A dog wheelchair, “a device designed to provide mobility to dogs with injured or amputated hind legs. It is composed of an aluminum rod frame with two wheels on the back end, a textile harness and straps to secure the dog. The Dog Wheel Chair comes with three sizes of wheels and four sizes of harnesses.” |
| Reason: Note 6 to Chapter 90 says articles are designed to “support or hold parts of the body following an illness, operation, or injury.” The Explanatory Note for heading 9021 also supports classification of orthopedic appliances for animals in this provision. |
| Ruling Date: June 13, 2022 |