CIT Rules That Plastic Wall Panels Are Not Furniture
In StoreWall, LLC,, v U.S., the United States Court of International Trade ruled that certain wall panels and locator tabs manufactured in Taiwan are prima facie classifiable under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 3926.90.98 as "Other articles of Plastics" at 5.3 percent and not under subheading 9403.70.80 or 9403.90.50 as "Other Furniture of Plastic and parts" at a free rate of duty.
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The wall panels are constructed from extruded polyvinyl chloride ("PVC") plastic with an "L" shaped groove on the front side of the panels in which an array of article holders and accessories, such as shelves, brackets, baskets, trays, hooks, racks and lights can be attached. The wall panels are designed to be hung on a pre-existing wall by interlocking the factory-produced grooves on the back side of the panels with locator tabs. The locator tabs are made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene ("ABS") plastic.
HTS Chapter 39 Note 2(u) states that articles covered by Chapter 94, such as furniture, are not covered under Chapter 39. Therefore, the initial question for the court was whether the wall panels and locators are properly classifiable under HTS Heading 9403.
The HTS does not define the term "furniture", but Chapter 94 Note 2 states that items should only be classified under Heading 9403 "if they are designed for placing on the floor or ground."
The CIT found that the wall panels, as imported, did not form a complete unit and without additional parts or the alteration of the panels themselves, could not be configured into a free-standing unit to stand on floor or ground.
Chapter 94 does make an exception, however, for certain items designed "to be hung, to be fixed to the wall or to stand one on the other," such as "cupboards, bookcases, other shelved furniture and unit furniture."
The CIT drew on dictionary definitions, HTS Explanatory Note requirements, and the Brussels Nomenclature Committee report, in determining that the term "unit furniture" could be defined for the purposes of the HTSUS as an item: (a) fitted with other pieces to form a larger system or which is itself composed of smaller complementary items, (b) designed to be hung, to be fixed to the wall, or to stand one on the other or side by side, and (c) assembled together in various ways to suit the consumer's individual needs to hold various objects or articles, but (d) excludes other wall fixtures such as coat, hat and similar racks, key racks, clothes brush hangers, and newspaper racks.
The CIT noted that at the time of importation, the wall panels and tabs were not yet in a form that would qualify as unit furniture. Their eventual use would vary with the accessories selected by each consumer. In fact, consumers could choose to accessorize the wall panels with only hooks. This configuration would result merely in a rack, which is expressly excluded from coverage in Chapter 94.
Thus, the CIT determined that the wall panels were not designed to be furniture nor did wall panels or tabs meet the CIT's definition of unit furniture, so classification in Chapter 94 was precluded. The court then turned to Heading 3926, a basket provision covering articles of plastics.
There was no dispute that the wall panels and locator tabs were made of plastic and no specific subheadings of articles of plastic include these items. Based on the foregoing, the CIT ruled that the wall panels and locator tabs were properly classifiable under heading 3926.90.98 as "Other articles of plastic."
Slip Op. 09-146 (dated 12/18/09) available athttp://www.cit.uscourts.gov/slip_op/Slip_op09/Slip-Op%2009-146.pdf
BP Note
All tariff numbers and rates are based on the 2003 version of the HTS