HQ 0731966 - Country of origin marking requirements applicable to pipe fittings - United States International Trade Commision Rulings

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HQ 731966
December 22, 1988

MAR-2-05 CO:R:C:V 731966 jd

CATEGORY: MARKING

Steven W. Baker
Bellsey and Baker
100 California Street
Suite 670
San Francisco, California 94111

RE: Country of origin marking requirements applicable to pipe fittings

Dear Mr. Baker:

This is in reply to your letters of November 30, 1988 and May 27, 1988, concerning the country of origin marking requirements applicable to a component of a pipe coupling known as a center ring.

FACTS:

According to your submission, your client imports parts and components of iron and steel to be processed into finished pipe fittings in the U.S. One component, known as a center ring, is designed to join sections of cast iron or steel pipe with outside diameters of from 4 to 13.92 inches to pipe sections of the same nominal size but with outside diameters of from 4 to 14.40 inches. The sample center ring we examined is a ductile iron casting resembling a pipe section, 6 inches in outside diameter and 5 1/2 inches long.

In ruling 082236, November 22, 1988, you were advised that center rings, and other components known as flanged coupling adapter bodies, are substantially complete fittings and classifiable under the provision for pipe and tube fittings of iron or steel, ductile fittings, in item 610.82, Tariff Schedules of the United States.

As you are aware, that tariff classification subjects the center rings to 19 U.S.C. 1304(c)(1). That section requires, in pertinent part, pipe fittings of steel or cast and malleable iron to be marked with the English name of the country of origin by means of die stamping, cast-in-mold lettering, etching or engraving.

You believe that the center rings should be allowed the alternate marking methods mentioned in 19 U.S.C. 1304(c)(2) since it is technically impossible or commercially infeasible to mark by one of the more permanent methods. In support of this request you state:

Unlike any other part, center rings have no marking as it is impossible to imprint a permanent marking on the casting because of the way it is cast. A center ring is thickest at the mid-point; thereafter it has a slight taper towards each end with a severe taper at each end which accommodates a gasket. With such a design a center ring must necessarily be cast on end with the parting line being in the middle of the casting. Thus it is impossible to put any markings on the side of the casting for such markings would either be destroyed when the pattern was removed from the cavity or would complete- ly prohibit the pattern from being removed from the cavity. The only possible area to put a permanent marking is on the ends; a practice which is also necessarily impossible for it would negate the integrity of the seal between the gasket and the center ring and thereby make the part useless.

ISSUE:

Can center rings, i.e., pipe fittings of cast iron or steel, be marked for country of origin marking purposes by means other than die stamping, cast-in-mold lettering, etching or engraving?

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

Section 304 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (19 U.S.C. 1304), requires that, unless excepted, every article of foreign origin (or its container) imported into the United States shall be marked in a conspicuous place as legibly, indelibly and permanently as the nature of the article (or container) will permit, in such a manner as to indicate to an ultimate purchaser in the United States the English name of the country of origin of the article.

Section 207 of the Trade and Tariff Act of 1984, amended 19 U.S.C. 1304 by requiring that all imported pipe and pipe fittings of iron or steel be permanently marked to indicate their country of origin by means of die stamping, cast-in-mold lettering, etching or engraving. Subparagraph (c)(2) of 19 U.S.C. 1304 provides however that if it would be technically or commercially infeasible to use one of the four listed methods of marking, "the article may be marked by an equally permanent method of marking such as paint stenciling or, in the case of small diameter pipe, tube, and fittings, by tagging the containers or bundles."

It is the opinion of this office that you have presented a sufficient case of technical or commercial infeasibility of marking center rings by either die stamping, cast-in-mold lettering, etching or engraving. Your specific description of the problems with marking during the molding process eliminates cast-in mold lettering as a possible marking method. As far as
other methods are concerned you state that marking on the end of the ring would destroy the integrity of the seal and make it commercially infeasible, and from experience we know that marking the side of fittings can weaken wall strength, also a commercial infeasibility.

Accordingly, your request to mark the center rings by paint stenciling is granted. However, your request to tag bundles or containers is denied. Subparagraph (c)(2) of 19 U.S.C. 1304 states that alternate marking methods should be by "an equally permanent method" and although neither paint stenciling nor tagging is as equally permanent as the four preferred methods of marking listed, paint stenciling is clearly more nearly equally permanent. Further, the statute suggests tagging as an alternative in the case of small diameter pipe, tube or fittings. The subject center rings do not qualify as small diameter when for purposes of applying the statute small is defined as incapable of being paint stenciled. In fact, your submission indicates that sizes are stenciled on the center ring in a completed fitting.

HOLDING:

Center rings, as described above, may be marked as to country of origin by means of paint stenciling. However, for the reasons set forth above, tagging of bundles or containers of center rings is not an acceptable method of marking.

Sincerely,

John Durant
Director

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