HQ 0732466 - Country of origin marking requirements for imported labels - United States International Trade Commision Rulings

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HQ 732466

February 27, 1990

MAR 2-05 CO:R:C:V 732466 pmh

CATEGORY: MARKING

Ms. Margo A. Markey
CCL Industries Inc.
105 Gordon Baker Road
Willowdale, Ontario, Canada M2H 3P8

RE: Country of origin marking requirements for imported labels

Dear Ms. Markey:

This is in response to your June 9, 1989 letter, requesting a ruling on the country of origin marking requirements for imported labels that will be applied to U.S. made goods. We regret the delay in responding.

FACTS:

According to your letter, you will be manufacturing labels in Canada. These labels will be imported into the U.S. by your U.S. customers who in turn will apply the labels to their own U.S. made goods, which goods will be sold as finished products. In your letter, you set forth three different scenarios in which the U.S. customers will purchase the labels. In the first scenario, the U.S. customers will purchase the labels directly from the Canadian division of your company and will receive the labels directly from Canada. In the second scenario, the U.S. customers will place their orders with the U.S. division of your company, which in turn will pass the orders on to the Canadian division. The labels will be imported directly to the U.S. customers. In the third scenario, the U.S. customers will place their orders with the U.S. division which will purchase the labels from the Canadian division. The U.S. division will not open or repack the labels in any manner and will ship them to the U.S. customers. In all three scenarios each bulk container will be marked with the words "Printed in Canada" and each invoice will indicate that the labels were made in Canada.

ISSUE:

Whether the proposed marking in each of the three possible purchasing scenarios set forth above, complies with the requirements of 19 U.S.C. 1304.

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

Section 304 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (19 U.S.C. 1304), provides that, unless excepted, every article of foreign origin imported into the U.S. 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 the ultimate purchaser in the U.S. the English name of the country of origin of the article. Pursuant to 19 U.S.C. 1304(a)(3)(D) and section 134.32(d), Customs Regulations (19 CFR 134.32(d)), an exception from individual marking is applicable where the marking of the container of such article will reasonably indicate the origin of the article. This exception is normally applied in cases where the imported article(s) is imported in a properly marked container and Customs officials at the port of entry are satisfied that the ultimate purchaser, i.e., the last person in the U.S. to receive the article in the form in which it was imported, will receive it in its original unopened marked container.

In this case, we consider your U.S. customers who apply the labels to their own goods to be the ultimate purchasers of the labels. They are the last to receive the labels in the form in which they were imported. When the U.S. customers use the labels on their U.S. goods, the labels lose their identity and become an integral part of the U.S. articles to which they are affixed. In each of the three scenarios you have described, the bulk containers are marked with the country of origin and the labels remain in these containers until they reach your U.S. customers. So long as Customs officials at the port of entry are satisfied that the labels are to be used only by your U.S. customers who will apply them to their own goods, that they are imported and sold in properly marked containers and that the U.S. customers will receive them in this fashion, we are of the opinion that the proposed marking satisfies the statutory requirements.

HOLDING:

Labels that are imported in properly marked containers as described above, and sold only to persons who will apply them to their own goods, may be excepted from individual marking pursuant to 19 U.S.C. 1304(a)(3)(D) and 19 CFR 134.32(d).

Sincerely,

Marvin M. Amernick

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