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HQ 086271

February 7, 1990
CLA-2 CO:R:C:G 086271 SLR

CATEGORY: CLASSIFICATION

TARIFF NO.: 1604.20.3000

Richard L. Huffman, Esq.
Baden, Kramer, Huffman & Brodsky, P.C.
20 Broad Street
New York, NY 10005

RE: Surimi-Based Product Imported From Japan

Dear Mr. Huffman:

This ruling is in response to your letter of December 8, 1989, on behalf of your client, Hanwa American Corporation, requesting the tariff classification of a surimi-based product under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Annotated (HTSUSA). Illustrations of the subject product were submitted for our examination.

FACTS:

The product at issue is prepared from Alaskan pollack which, after mincing, is mixed with wheat or corn starch, egg white, salt, sugar, water, and a preservative. This mixture is formed into various shapes, and then steam cooked. In the instant product, the mixture is formed into individual and uniform pieces of approximately two inches in overall length and about one inch in diameter. These pieces are roughly cylindrical in shape, though slightly flattened on the sides, and the ends of each pieces are cut on an angle of approximately 45 degrees. This product, which is said to be imported in plastic bags of twenty pounds each, net weight, has been colored to resemble crab, but contains no shellfish meat.

In your letter, you maintain that the product at issue is classifiable as fish cake in subheading 1604.20.3000, HTSUSA.

ISSUE:

Whether the subject surimi-based product is classifiable as fish cake in subheading 1604.20.3000, HTSUSA.

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

Subheading 1604.20.3000, HTSUSA, provides for other prepared or preserved fish: balls, cakes and puddings: not in oil: other.

The provision for "balls, cakes and puddings" is a carryover from the Tariff Schedules of the United States Annotated. Hence, we would consider as relevant the description of these products in the "Summaries of Trade and Tariff Information," Schedule 1, Volume 3, (1969), which appears on page 69, as follows:

This summary covers a variety of food specialties that have fish as a principal ingredient and are prepared according to recipes indigenous to a country and region. In the preparation of these specialties the fish is either flaked, shredded, ground, or minced, to which is usually added a spice and a binder such as eggs, potatoes, or cereals. The principal difference between the various products is their consistency and shape.

In terms of its composition, surimi-based products -- including the subject product -- consist of minced fish flesh combined with other ingredients, such as binders and seasonings, which are typical of the products enumerated in the subheading.

In addition to having the required ingredient composition, products classified under the requested subheading must be imported in the form of fish "balls, cakes or puddings." The word "cake" is defined in The Random House Dictionary of the English Language (Unabridged ed., 1983), at p. 208, as:

1) A sweet baked food in loaf or layer form, made with or without shortening, usually with baking powder or soda, and liquid.

4) A shaped or molded mass of other food: a fish cake.

The subject product meets the dictionary definition of "cake" in that it will be imported in a shaped or molded form. Each piece of surimi is approximately two inches in length, one inch in diameter and is cut on an angle.

HOLDING:

The subject surimi-based product is classifiable in subheading 1604.20.3000, HTSUSA, which provides for other prepared or preserved fish: balls, cakes and puddings: not in oil: other, dutiable at 0.8 percent per kilogram.

Sincerely,

John Durant, Director
Commercial Rulings Division11111

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