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HQ 115405




June 27, 2001

BON-2-RR:IT:EC 115405 GEV

CATEGORY: BONDS

Timothy S. Carey
President & CEO
Battery Park City Authority
One World Financial Center
New York, New York 10281-1097

RE: Irish Hunger Memorial; 9812.00.40, HTSUS; U.S. Note 2 to Subchapter XII, Chapter 98, HTSUS

Dear Mr. Carey:

This is in response to your letter of June 18, 2001, regarding the importation of an Irish Hunger Memorial pursuant to the above-referenced provision of the HTSUS and a waiver of surety on the required bond. Our ruling on this matter is set forth below.

FACTS:

Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) is a state-created, public benefit corporation that does not engage in business of a private or commercial character and whose mission is to develop Battery Park City as a residential and commercial community. Any profits that BCPA derives from its activities are required to be remitted to the City of New York.

Battery Park City is located in lower Manhattan. Within the boundaries of Battery Park City are several parks. To memorialize the contributions of the Irish to the City of New York, BPCA is constructing an Irish Hunger Memorial that will be permanently located in one of the public parks in Battery Park City. The memorial is intended to call attention to contemporary instances of starvation and to mark the famine that devastated Ireland, and transformed New York in the process. An essential component of the memorial is an authentic Irish
stone cottage that was built circa 1838. Research indicates that the cottage was the home of an Irish family during the Great Hunger of the 1840s. Many Irish citizens who did not perish during the famine emigrated to the United States. The cottage will symbolize the family life that it once sheltered.

The cottage is a gift from the Irish citizen on whose property the cottage has been located. With the support and assistance of the Irish Government, the cottage is being disassembled in Ireland into stone components, cleaned, and shipped to the United States in several containers. The cottage will be reassembled from the original stones, as described below. There will be no roof on the cottage, nor will there be glass windows. The cottage will be in mapped park land, in the City of New York, in a public park that overlooks the Hudson River. The cottage will be surrounded by potato furrows, stone walls, and indigenous wildflowers, grasses and weeds that are meant to evoke the Irish countryside. The cottage and the rest of the Hunger Memorial will be a permanent monument to the Irish potato famine and to the Irish who emigrated to the United States and helped to build the City of New York and this country as a whole.

The Memorial is being built at a cost to the BPCA of $5,000,000. Its permanent foundation consists of 103 piles and footings, and despite its appearance of stone placed upon stone, it will be held together and reinforced with mortar, structural steel, and all other Building Department required materials necessary to make a structure earthquake-proof under the New York City Building Code.

ISSUE:

Whether the subject merchandise may be entered duty-free under subheading 9812.00.40, HTSUS, and surety on the bond waived.

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

All goods imported into the Customs territory of the United States from outside thereof are subject to duty or exempt therefrom as provided for by the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS; see General Note 1, HTSUS). Subheading 9812.00.40, HTSUS, provides for an exemption from duty for articles imported by an institution, society, or State, or for a municipal corporation, for the purpose of erecting a public monument.

The Customs Regulations setting forth the requirements for entry pursuant to subheading 9812.00.40, HTSUS, are found at § 10.49, Customs Regulations (19 CFR § 10.49). Included in these requirements is the filing of a declaration by a qualified officer of the institution demonstrating entitlement to entry as claimed. As President & CEO of BPCA, your letter of June 18, 2001, meets this requirement. Upon reviewing the information contained therein, it is readily apparent that the subject merchandise fits within the terms of subheading 9812.00.40, HTSUS, and therefore may be imported duty-free.

We note that you have also requested that surety on the bond be waived. Pursuant to the authority granted by U.S. Note 2 to Subchapter XII, Chapter 98, HTSUS, Treasury Department Order No. 165, Revised (T.D. 53654), and T.D. 69-126, we are granting your request. Consequently, surety on the required bond is waived.

HOLDING:

The subject merchandise may be entered duty-free under subheading 9812.00.40, HTSUS. In addition, surety on the bond is waived.

Sincerely,

Larry L. Burton

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