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NY 895364

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March 23, 1994

CLA-2-04:S:N:N7:231 895364

CATEGORY: CLASSIFICATION

TARIFF NO.: 0406.90.8060; 9904.10.54

Mr. Carl Newton
Newton Foster International, Inc.
2240 Suwannee Drive
Marrero, LA 70072

RE: The tariff classification of Pecorino, Roncale, and Manchego cheese from Venezuela.

Dear Mr. Newton:

In your letter, which is undated, and received by this office on March 4, 1994, you requested a tariff classification ruling.

The merchandise is comprised of Pecorino without pepper, Pecorino with pepper, Roncale, and Manchego cheese. You indicate in your correspondance that the four types of cheese are made from cow's milk, and you provide the moisture content of each. The products are described thus:

1. Queso Pecorino Sin Pimienta (Pecorino cheese without pepper; original loaf). The ingredients are milk, rennet, and salt. You state that the moisture content ranges from 36 percent to 38 percent.

2. Queso Pecorino Con Pimienta (Pecorino cheese with pepper; original loaf). The ingredients are milk, rennet, salt, and pepper. The moisture content ranges from 36 percent to 38 percent.

3. Queso Roncale (Roncale cheese; original loaf). The ingredients are pasteurized milk, lactic enzymes, rennet, salt, and fat on a dry base. The moisture content ranges from 38 percent to 40 percent.

4. Queso Manchego (Manchego cheese; original loaf). The ingredients are milk, lactic enzymes, rennet, salt, and fat on a dry base. The moisture content ranges from 38 percent to 40 percent.

The applicable subheading for the Queso Pecorino Sin Pimienta (Pecorino cheese without pepper), the Queso Pecorino Con Pimienta (Pecorino cheese with pepper), the Queso Roncale (Roncale cheese), and the Queso Manchego (Manchego cheese), will be 0406.90.8060, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS), which provides for cheese and curd, other cheese, other cheeses, and substitutes for cheese, including mixtures of the above, other, including mixtures of the above, other, other, other, containing cow's milk (except soft-ripened cow's milk cheese). The rate of duty will be 10 percent ad valorem.

Articles classifiable in HTS subheading 0406.90.8060 are subject to the quota quantity restrictions listed in subchapter IV of Chapter 99 in HTS subheading 9904.10.54, which limit the amount of such cheese which may be imported each year into the United States. Such cheese imported into the United States from countries other than the European Economic Community, Austria, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand, Canada, Austria, Israel, Argentina or Australia, has an annual quota quantity allocation of 201,635 kilograms each calendar year. Additionally, an import license, issued to the importer by the United States Department of Agriculture, will be required at the time such merchandise is entered for consumption into the United States.

Questions regarding licensing procedures and applications for licenses to import cheese subject to quota should be addressed to:

U.S. Department of Agriculture
Foreign Agricultural Service
Import Policies and Trade Analysis Division Att: Dairy Import Group, Rm. 5531, So. Bldg. Washington, DC 20250-1000

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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