CBP Affirms Port's Separate Classification of Machinery Parts, Not Single Entry
The CBP Port of Detroit was correct when it liquidated entries of machinery parts under four separate tariff provisions rather than under the importer's preferred single classification, agency headquarters said in a March 31 ruling. CBP headquarters said it took up the further review of protest "because the decision against which the protest was filed is alleged to be inconsistent with a ruling of the Commissioner of CBP or his designee, or with a decision made at any port with respect to the same or substantially similar merchandise." The ruling, HQ H213695, is in response to a protest filed by Witzenmann, a metal parts company.
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The dispute is over thirteen items, which make up four machines, imported as a singled entry. The machines make and cut bellows, which are used in the exhaust systems in motor vehicles, and consist of corrugated stainless steel tubing, said CBP. Bellows connect the exhaust gas pipes to the funnel of an engine and the corrugations allow it to compensate for the vibration caused by the running engine, and the temperature differences that result in thermal expansion, the agency said. The four machines play different roles in the bellows-making process. While the importer entered the machine parts as a single entry classified as 8479.81.00 for “Machines and mechanical appliances having individual functions, not specified or included elsewhere in this chapter; parts thereof: Other machines and mechanical appliances: For treating metal, including electric wire coil-winders,” CBP liquidated the entries in four different subheadings. The importer protested that decision.
The importer argued that the parts of the four machines, "intended to work together to produce bellows for the exhaust system of vehicles, constitutes either a composite machine" or a "functional unit," even if not all of the components are included. The company cited a 2011 CBP headquarters ruling that said that an entry classification can sometimes be extended to "include an article, whether assembled or unassembled, that is imported incomplete or unfinished," as long as that article is "found to have the essential character of the complete or unfinished good."
But because the original entry did not include a hydroforming machine, which is necessary to form the corrugations in the tubing, the entry lacked an integral piece, said CBP. "Without the hydroforming machine, the imported machines cannot complete the bellows-making operation," and therefore cannot be considered a functional unit, the agency said. "Because the corrugations allow the bellows to perform its essential function and distinguish it from a simple pipe, we find that even if the four machines were completely assembled, they do not form the essential character of a bellows-forming functional unit." As a result, the machines were properly classified in different subheadings, it said.