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NY 886186




June 9, 1993

MAR-2-39:S:N:N6:221 886186

CATEGORY: MARKING

Mr. Walter Warren
Panalpina, Inc.
34 Exchange Place
Harborside Financial Center
Jersey City, NJ 07311-3991

RE: The country of origin marking requirements of plastic lids from Taiwan.

Dear Mr. Warren :

In your letter dated May 19, 1993, on behalf of Bel-Art Products, you requested a country of origin marking ruling.

The plastic lids will be made in Taiwan and imported into the United States where they will be screwed onto plastic bottles of American origin. The bottles and lids will then be sold to laboratories. A sample lid and bottle was included with your letter. The lid measures approximately 2 3/4 inches in diameter. The bottle has a height of approximately 5 1/4 inches and a diameter of approximately 2 3/4 inches at both its mouth and base. You have asked whether the lids must be marked with the country of origin.

Section 304 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (19 U.S.C. 1304), provides that 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 U.S. the English name of the country of origin of the article.

The primary purpose of the country of origin marking statute is to "mark the goods so that at the time of purchase the ultimate purchaser may, by knowing where the goods were produced, be able to buy or refuse to buy them, if such marking should influence his will." United States v. Friedlaender & Co., 27 C.C.P.A. 297, 302, C.A.D. 104 (1940).

The ultimate purchaser is the last person in the United States who will receive the article in the form in which it was imported. In this instance, the ultimate purchaser is the person who receives the lids in the form in which they were imported.

The lids neither undergo a substantial transformation nor lose their identity when they are screwed onto the containers. Thus the laboratory, and not the company that will screw the lids onto the bottles, is the last to receive the lids in their condition as imported.

Since the laboratory will receive the lids in the condition in which they were imported, the laboratory is the ultimate purchaser. Therefore, the lids must be marked so that the ultimate purchaser may know the country of origin.

This ruling is being issued under the provisions of Section 177 of the Customs Regulations (19 C.F.R. 177).

A copy of this ruling letter should be attached to the entry documents filed at the time this merchandise is imported. If the documents have been filed without a copy, this ruling should be brought to the attention of the Customs officer handling the transaction.

Sincerely,

Jean F. Maguire
Area Director

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