Newly Released CBP HQ Rulings March 15-18
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated March 15-18 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):
H329399: Classification of “Real Littles Micro Crafts”
| Ruling: The DIY Globes, DIY Light Box, DIY Fizz Bomb, and DIY Terrarium are classified in heading 9503, and specifically in subheading 9503.00.0073, which provides for “Tricycles, scooters, pedal cars and similar wheeled toys; dolls? carriages; dolls, other toys; reduced-scale models and similar recreational models, working or not; puzzles of all kinds; parts and accessories thereof; “Children’s products? as defined in 15 U.S.C. § 2052: Other: Labeled or determined by importer as intended for use by persons: 3 to 12 years of age.” The 2024 column one general rate of duty is free. |
| Issue: What is the classification of each of the DIY “Real Littles Micro Crafts” kits? |
| Item: Craft type kits that include various miniature toy-like items, which are packaged together for retail sale and marketed as collectible craft projects designed for children. The five kits at issue consist of DIY miniature-themed, boxed craft kits, which contain all the components needed to create a specific craft. Each craft kit comes complete with step-by-step instructions and includes a miniature carabiner, which is designed to attach the miniature carry box to a child’s backpack or beltloop. Each of the items provided in the kits are significantly smaller in size than their life-sized counterparts. |
| Reason: The primary purpose of the DIY kits is to provide amusement for children as young as six years of age through the creative process of designing the interior of tiny globes, choosing the words and images that appear on a light box, crafting miniatures from molds, and curating a unique space for a unicorn. The kits present a significant range of design possibilities for children to experiment with and the ability to then transport, in the carry box, and show-off the assembled kits is of limited value compared to the creative process required to assemble them. The value of the DIY kits comes from the assembly or reassembly of the kits and not from the utility or value of the end product. |
| Ruling Date: March 15, 2024 |
H326827: Eligibility of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to fiber sensors, processing units, and programmable controllers from Canada
| Ruling: The Instrumar Fiber System will be classified in subheading 8537.10.91. The Instrumar Fiber System satisfies the product specific rule of origin and will be eligible for preferential tariff treatment under the USMCA when imported together into the United States from Canada. |
| Issue: Is the Instrumar Fiber System eligible for preferential tariff treatment under the USMCA when it is imported from Canada into the United States? |
| Item: The three articles in the Instrumar Fiber System are the G5 Sensor Unit which is an aluminum enclosure containing a printed circuit board assembly, a sensor element, and an electrical cable assembly. The G5 Sensor Processing Unit Assembly is a PCBA having multiple connections where 20 SUs are connected and sensor signals are “processed”, converted into phase digital data, and transmitted to the controller system. Beckhoff Controller Assembly w/ Remote IO is a DIN rail mounted programmable controller consisting of a number of individual modules, which vary in type and quantity based on the intended application. Each of the articles under consideration interact with a textile fiber production machine to inspect and measure the properties of the fiber as it passes over the sensor element. The sensor is said to measure the properties of the fiber by its interaction with a magnetic field created by the sensor, where the sensor output is described as a measurement of “node count”, “amplitude”, “magnitude”, and “phase”. This data is sent to the controller system via the processing unit. The G5 Sensor Unit and G5 Sensor Processing Unit Assembly are manufactured in Canada using both originating and non-originating materials. The Beckhoff Controller modules are imported into Canada from Germany. The components will be imported into the United States in separate boxes and may be imported at different times, all components are required for an operable system. |
| Reason: While the Instrumar Fiber System contains printed circuit assemblies of subheading 8538.90, there are also inputs classified under subheading 8537 and many other subheadings. As a result, CBP applied the regional value content requirement of not less than 50% using the transaction value method or 40% using the net cost method. The calculation equals a number that is above the 50% minimum required by GN 11 for regional value content. |
| Ruling Date: March 7, 2024 |