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HQ 965726




September 19, 2002

CLA-2 RR:CR:GC 965726 AML

CATEGORY: CLASSIFICATION

TARIFF NO.: 3701.30.00; 3701.99.60

Port Director
U.S. Customs Service
610 South Canal Street
Chicago, IL 60607

RE: Protest 3701-02-100109; digital printing plates

Dear Port Director:

The following is our decision regarding protest 3701-02-100109, filed on behalf of Fuji Photo Film USA, Inc., against your classification of digital printing plates under subheading 8442.50.90 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), which provides for printing type, blocks, plates, cylinders and other printing components . . . plates. Descriptive and illustrative literature was provided for our consideration.

FACTS:

The articles at issue are three types of Fujifilm Brillia Digital plates, referred to as Fujifilm Brillia LP-N3 Photopolymer Plates, Fujifilm Brillia LH-PI Thermal Plates, and Fujifilm Brillia LH-NI Thermal Plates. The protestant describes the articles as a digital plate used in a Fujifilm graphic printing system. The articles are flat pieces of aluminum which have been coated with a grained photosensitive layer. The plates are inserted into Fujifilm Plate Setting Machines that will expose an image onto the plate. The finished plates will be used in a printing press.

The articles were entered in July 2001, and the entry was liquidated on October 19, 2001. The protest was filed on January 16, 2002. The products were classified at liquidation under subheading 8442.50.90, HTSUS.

ISSUE:

Whether the digital printing plates are classifiable under heading 3701, HTSUS, which provides for, among other things, photographic plates, or under heading 8442, HTSUS, which provides for, among other things, printing plates?

LAW and ANALYSIS:

Initially we note that the protest was timely filed and the matter protested is protestable (see 19 U.S.C. §1514(a)(2) and (5)).

Classification of imported merchandise is accomplished pursuant to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). Classification under the HTSUS is guided by the General Rules of Interpretation of the Harmonized System (GRIs). GRI 1, HTSUS, states in part that “for legal purposes, classification shall be determined according to the terms of the headings and any relative section or chapter notes[.]”

The applicable HTSUS provisions under consideration are as follows:

3701 Photographic plates and film in the flat, sensitized, unexposed, of any material other than paper, paperboard or textiles; instant print film in the flat, sensitized, unexposed, whether or not in packs: 3701.30.00 Other plates and film, with any side exceeding 255 mm Other:
3701.99 Other:
3701.99.60 Other.
8442 Machinery, apparatus and equipment (other than the machine tools of headings 8456 to 8465), for type-founding or typesetting, for preparing or making printing blocks, plates, cylinders or other printing components; printing type, blocks, plates, cylinders and other printing components; blocks, plates, cylinders and lithographic stones, prepared for printing purposes (for example, planed, grained or polished); parts thereof: 8442.50 Printing type, blocks, plates, cylinders and other printing components; locks, plates, cylinders and lithographic stones, prepared for printing purposes (for example, planed, grained or polished): 8442.50.10 Plates.
8442.50.90 Other.

Headquarters Ruling Letter (HQ) 950301, dated March 10, 1992 (copy enclosed), addresses Customs position on the classification of digital printing plates substantially similar to those under consideration. See also New York Ruling Letters (NY) 899348, dated July 21, 1994, NY C88253, dated June 19, 1998, and NY I84363, dated August 12, 2002. In HQ 950301, “aluminum plates that have been anodized and grained and coated with photosensitive material which are photographically imaged and then used as printing plates” were classified under heading 3701, HTSUS, which
provides for, among other things, photographic plates. See the exclusion following EN 84.42(A) which provides that sensitized plates are excluded from Chapter 84 and that they should be classified under heading 3701, HTSUS. Accordingly, we incorporate the LAW AND ANALYSIS section of that ruling in this decision, as it is dispositive of the issue raised by the protestant.

Therefore, the merchandise at issue should be classified under heading 3701, HTSUS, which provides for, among other things, photographic plates.

HOLDING:

The digital printing plates, if any side exceeds 255mm, are classifiable under subheading 3701.30.00, HTSUS, which provides for “photographic plates and film in the flat, sensitized, unexposed, of any material other than paper, paperboard or textiles; instant print film in the flat, sensitized, unexposed, whether or not in packs: other plates and film, with any side exceeding 255 mm; or under subheading 3701.99.60, HTSUS, which provides for those articles with sides that do not exceed 255mm.

The protest is DENIED. In accordance with Section 3A(11)(b) of Customs Directive 099 3550-065, dated August 4, 1993, Subject: Revised Protest Directive, this decision, together with Customs Form 19, should be mailed by your office to the protestant no later than sixty (60) days from the date of this letter. Any reliquidation of the entry in accordance with the decision must be accomplished prior to mailing of this decision.

Sixty (60) days from the date of this decision the Office of Regulations and Rulings will take steps to make the decision available to Customs personnel via the Customs Rulings Module in ACS and the public via the Diskette Subscription Service, the World Wide Web at www.customs.treas.gov, and other public access channels.

Sincerely,

Myles B. Harmon, Acting Director

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