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HQ 967916




MAY 4, 2006

CLA-2 RR:CTF:TCM 967916 JAS

CATEGORY: CLASSIFICATION

TARIFF NO.: 8536.90.4000

Area Port Director
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
8337 NE Alderwood Road
Portland, OR 97220

RE: Alligator Clips; IA 05/22

Dear Area Port Director:

Your memorandum of September 15, 2005, forwarded a letter from counsel on behalf of Precision Interconnect (“PI”), a division of Tyco Electronics Company, dated July 27, 2005, requesting internal advice on the classification of alligator clips under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Annotated (HTSUSA). Samples were submitted.

The goods, invoiced as MORTARA T101 ALLIGATOR CLIP 10, (“MT 101”), were entered as terminals that are electrical apparatus for switching or protecting electrical circuits, or for making connections to or in electrical circuits, couplings, for a voltage not exceeding 1,000V, in subheading 8536.90.4000, HTSUSA. Based on rulings on substantially identical merchandise, your office proposes to reclassify the merchandise as other electrical apparatus for switching or protecting electrical circuits, or for making connections to or in electrical circuits, in subheading 8536.90.8085, HTSUSA.

FACTS:

The submitted alligator clip MT 101 is a stainless steel device, two inches long, with spring-loaded serrated jaws on one end and a female portal on the other end. The internal advice applicant indicates these devices are used with electrostatic discharge systems (EDS), electrocardiogram equipment and test and measurement systems. In use, an electrical lead wire is plugged into the female portal and the serrated jaws clamped onto EDS technician, the medical machine or testing device to provide a temporary connection for electricity to pass through.

The HTSUS provisions under consideration are as follows:

8536 Electrical apparatus for switching or for protecting electrical circuits, or for making connections to or in electrical circuits (for example, switches, relays, fuses, surge suppressors, plugs, sockets, lamp-holders, junction boxes,) for a voltage not exceeding 1,000 V:

8536.90 Other apparatus:

8536.90.40 Terminals, electrical splices and electrical couplings; wafer probers

8536.90.80 Other

ISSUE:

Whether the MT 101 alligator clip is a terminal of subheading 8536.90.40.

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

Under General Rule of Interpretation (GRI) 1, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), goods are to be classified according to the terms of the headings and any relative section or chapter notes, and provided the headings or notes do not require otherwise, according to GRIs 2 through 6.

The rulings you cite, NY C81069, dated November 19, 1997, and NY F87872, dated June 30, 2000, classified alligator clips and alligator-type clips as other electrical apparatus for making connections to or in electric circuits, in subheading 8536.90.80, HTSUS. However, after a thorough review of the matter CBP determined that the classification of alligator and alligator-type clips expressed in these rulings was incorrect. Accordingly, a notice proposing to modify NY C81069, to revoke NY F87872
and to classify this merchandise as terminals that are electrical apparatus for making connections to or in electric circuits, in subheading 8546.90.4000, HTSUSA, was published in the Customs Bulletin on March 15, 2006, Volume 40, Number 12. No comments were received in response to this notice. CBP’s current position on the classification of alligator and alligator-type clips in subheading 8536.90.4000, HTSUSA, is reflected in HQ 968094 and HQ 968095, both dated April 21, 2006. The contents of these rulings are incorporated by reference in this decision.

HOLDING:

Under the authority of GRI 1, the MT 101 alligator clips are provided for in heading 8536. They are classifiable in subheading 8536.90.4000, HTSUSA, dutiable in 2005 at the column one, general FREE rate of duty.

You are to mail this decision to counsel for the internal advice applicant no later than 60 days from the date of this letter. On that date the Office of Regulations and Rulings will take steps to make the decision available to CBP personnel, and to the public on the Customs Home Page on the World Wide Web at www.cbp.gov, by means of the Freedom of Information Act, and other methods of public distribution.

Sincerely,

Gail A. Hamill
for Myles B. Harmon, Director
Commercial and Trade Facilitation Division

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