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HQ 966095




March 10, 2003

CLA-2 RR:CR:GC 966095 GOB

CATEGORY: CLASSIFICATION

TARIFF NO.:

Port Director of Customs
477 Michigan Avenue
Detroit, MI 48226

RE: Protest No. 3801-01-100776; Steel Products

Dear Port Director:

This is in reply to your undated memorandum (ENT 11-TO:CT 347 LW), which forwarded Protest No. 3801-01-100776, filed by counsel on behalf of Thyssen Specialty Steels (“TSS”).

FACTS:

The file reflects the following. The 12 entries at issue were filed between October 12, 2000 and January 4, 2001. They were liquidated between August 24, 2001 and November 16, 2001. The protest was timely filed on November 20, 2001.

The steel products were entered under subheading 7228.40.00, HTSUS. The entries were liquidated under subheading 7228.50.10, HTSUS.

Your office advises that the subject steel is the same as the steel in HQ 955737 dated July 27, 1995, a protest ruling involving TSS. The goods in HQ 955737 were described in pertinent part as follows:

. . . round, rectangular or block-shaped and flat bars of alloy tool steel, either press forged or roll forged from blooms or billets. These bars, designated Thyroplast, Thyrodur and Thyrotherm, are then annealed to improve the steel’s mechanical properties, after which the rounds are peeled or turned and the blocks and flats machined or milled. The dimensions of the imported product taken from representative invoices are in 1/8 inch increments, expressed in thousanths or ten thousandths of an inch . . .

The description of the subject goods on the Customs Protest and Summons Information Report (CF 6445A), which was taken from the invoices submitted to Customs, is as follows:

D2 Rounds Rough Annealed

Alloy Tool Steel P20HH Blocks Roughm H.T.S.R., Forged, Machined

Tool Steel Bars Thryotherm 2344 EFS hot rolled, normalized and annealed, straightened, mech. Descaled.

ISSUE:

What is the classification under the HTSUS of the subject steel products?

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

The issue (or substantially the same issue) presented in the subject protest, (i.e., the classification under heading 7228, HTSUS, of the subject steel products), is currently pending in the Court of International Trade in Bohler-Uddeholm Corp. v. United States, Court No. 01-00516.

In accordance with section 152.16(e), Customs Regulations (19 CFR 152.16(e)), unless the Customs Service directs otherwise, the principles of any court decision adverse to the Government will be applied to unliquidated entries and protested entries which have not been denied in whole or in part and in which the same issue is involved as soon as the time within which an application for a rehearing or review may be filed has expired without such application having been made.

HOLDING:

In accordance with section 3E of Customs Directive Number 099 3550-065, dated August 4, 1993, Subject: Revised Protest Directive, you are to ask counsel for the protestant if the protestant wishes to request in writing the suspension the subject protest pending disposition of Bohler-Uddeholm Corp. v. United States, Court No. 01-00516. If the protestant makes such a request, the protest is to be suspended.

If the protestant declines to make such a request for suspension, the protest is to be denied. If 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, you are to mail this decision, together with the Customs Form 19, to the protestant no later than 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 the decision. Sixty days from the date of the decision the Office of Regulations and Rulings will make the decision available to Customs personnel, and to the public on the Customs Home Page on the World Wide Web at www.customs.treas.gov, by means of the Freedom of Information Act, and other methods of public distribution.

Sincerely,

Myles B. Harmon, Director
Commercial Rulings Division

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