HQ 0083781 - Classification of a woman's jacket - United States International Trade Commision Rulings

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HQ 083781

March 10, 1989

CLA-2 CO:R:C:G 083781 PR

CATEGORY: CLASSIFICATION

TARIFF NOS: TSUSA 376.5612; TSUSA 384.9152

Stephen M. Zelman, Esquire
Siegel, Mandell & Davidson, P.C.
One Whitehall Street
New York, New York 10004

RE: Classification of a woman's jacket

Dear Mr. Zelman:

This is in reply to your letter of April 18, 1988, on behalf of Amerex of California, concerning the classification of certain women's jackets.

FACTS:

The lightweight garment you submitted is a waist length jacket with a full front opening secured with metal snaps. It has long sleeves with elasticized cuffs, a pointed collar, a vertical inserted pocket on each front quarter panel near the bottom of the garment, a drawstring waist, and a woven cotton lining. The woven man-made fiber outer shell fabric is stated to be coated with plastics on the inner surface; however, there is no visible evidence of such a coating. No claim is made, nor is there any evidence of plastics having been added to the outer shell fabric in the form of a lamination.

The importer submitted a swatch of fabric to the Area Director, New York Seaport, for a ruling on its classification. The Area Director, in NYRL 822951, of April 22, 1988, ruled that the submitted fabric was coated or filled with plastics for tariff purposes and classifiable, when imported in fabric form, in item 355.8220, Tariff Schedules of the United States Annotated (TSUSA). Subsequently, the importer entered jackets under the provision for garments designed for rainwear or similar uses, wholly or almost wholly of fabrics that have been coated or filled with rubber or plastics, in item 376.5612, TSUSA. Those jackets were stated to have an outer shell made from the same fabric as that ruled upon in NYRL 822951,

A sample was taken from the shipment and examined by the two principal National Import Specialists in New York who are concerned with coated or filled fabrics. Both concluded that the outershell fabric of the imported jackets was not the same fabric as that ruled upon in NYRL 822951.

The importer, through its attorney representative, maintains that the two fabrics are the same--that they were manufactured by the same manufacturer according to the same specifications; although it is admitted that the two fabrics did not come from the same roll.

ISSUE:

The issue presented is whether the ruling issued by the Area Director, New York Seaport, requires that the instant merchandise be classified in item 376.5612.

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

This office has independently compared a swatch of the fabric that was the subject of NYRL 822951 with the outer shell fabric of the sample submitted by the importer's representative. Using magnification solely for the purpose of determining whether the two fabrics are sufficiently similar to warrant sending them to a Customs laboratory for a report on their degree of similarity, we are convinced that, at a minimum, each fabric has a noticeably different amount of plastics applied.

Since the garments are not made of the same fabric as that previously ruled upon, we need not comment on the propriety of relying on a ruling concerning the classification of fabric when importing garments.

In determining the classification of the submitted sample, we have examined the outer shell fabric and are unable to detect any visible evidence of the presence of a plastics coating or filling. Accordingly, the sample garment cannot be classified under 376.5612, which requires that it be wholly or almost wholly of fabrics that have been coated or filled with rubber or plastics.

HOLDING:

The ruling issued by the Area Director, New York Seaport, NYRL 822951, has no application to the sample jacket. That garment is classifiable, if in chief value of man-made fibers and imported prior to January 1, 1989, under the TSUSA provision for women's coats, of man-made fibers, not ornamented and not knit, in item 384.9152, and under textile category 635.

Sincerely,

John Durant, Director

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