HQ 085831: Rotary Cutting Blade

Native CBP ruling rendition. Applicability is fact-specific; modification/revocation relationships and original publisher date are retained. Publisher sentinel year0001 means unknown date, not a historical legal adoption.

                                        HQ 085831

                                        NOV 13, 1989

            CLA-2:CO:R:C:G   085831 JAS

            CATEGORY:   Classification

            TARIFF NO.: 8211.94.5000

            Horst F. Biernath
            Bimex, Incorporated
            3617 Shallowford Road
            Atlanta, Georgia 30340-1073

            RE:  Rotary Cutting Blade

            Dear Mr. Biernath:

                 In your letter of August 28, 1989, on behalf of Salem
            Industries, Inc., you inquire as to the tariff classification
            of blades from Taiwan for rotary cutting knives.  Descriptive
            literature was submitted.

            FACTS:

                 The article in question is a circular steel cutting blade.
            It is the rotary cutting portion of a hand-held device used in
            quilting and sewing applications to cut fabric.  After
            importation, Salem will assemble the steel blade in a plastic
            housing with handle, and package it together with a plastic
            two-piece adjustable guide arm and steel wing nut in a
            cardboard backed blister pack.

                 Your broker tentatively advised you that the blades are
            classifiable under the provision for circular saw blades with
            working part of steel, in subheading 8202.31.0000, Harmonized
            Tariff Schedule of the United States Annotated (HTSUSA).

            ISSUE:

                 Is the steel blade classifiable as a saw blade or under a
            provision(s) for knives with cutting blades?

















                                       - 2 -

            LAW AND ANALYSIS:

                 In accordance with General Rule of Interpretation (GRI) 1,
            for legal purposes, classification shall be determined
            according to the terms of the headings and any relative section
            or chapter notes.  GRI 3(a) states that when goods are, prima
            facie, classifiable under two or more headings, the heading
            which provides the most specific description shall be preferred
            to headings providing a more general description.

                 Heading 8208 provides for knives and cutting blades, for
            machines or for mechanical appliances, and base metal parts
            thereof, while heading 8211 provides for knives with cutting
            blades, serrated or not, other than knives of heading 8208, and
            blades and other base metal parts thereof.  Hand-held cutting
            devices of the type in issue here are not machines or
            mechanical appliances of the type covered by heading 8208.
            Under the authority of GRI 3(a), heading 8211 provides the most
            specific description for the cutting blades from among the
            headings under consideration.

            HOLDING:

                 The circular cutting blades in question are provided for
            in heading 8211.  They are classifiable under the provision for
            blades for knives having other than fixed blades, in subheading
            8211.94.5000, HTSUSA, dutiable at the rate of 1 cent each plus
            5.4 percent ad valorem.

                                              Sincerely,



                                        John Durant, Director
                                          Commercial Rulings Division