HQ 956552: Greenhouse Mobile Benching System; Section XVI, Note 3; Explanatory Note 84.36; HQ 074237

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 956552
                          July 7, 1994


CLA-2 CO:R:C:M 956552 DWS

CATEGORY: Classification

TARIFF NO.: 8436.80.00

Mr. Robert Di Maio
International Freight Services, Inc.
1610 Rollins Road
Burlingame, CA 94010

RE: Greenhouse Mobile Benching System; Section XVI, Note 3;
    Explanatory Note 84.36; HQ 074237

Dear Mr. Di Maio:

     This is in response to your letters of June 14, 1994, to this
office, and April 21, 1994, to the District Director of Customs,
San Francisco, California, on behalf of Nurserymen's Exchange,
Inc., concerning the classification of a greenhouse mobile benching
system under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States
(HTSUS).  In NY 897332, dated April 29, 1994, the Area Director,
New York Seaport, advised you that your April 21, 1994, letter was
factually insufficient to provide a ruling.  However, you have
since supplemented your ruling request with additional factual
information on the merchandise.

FACTS:

     The merchandise consists of an automated greenhouse mobile
benching system.  The system is an aggregate of machines and
systems designed to provide an assembly line method of growing a
horticultural crop (i.e., roses).  The benches move the potted
plants through the various stages of growth: planting, rooting,
pinching, and finishing.  The complete system functions as a unit
with each piece of machinery depending on the previous machine in
the assembly line process.  

     The system is comprised of several components.  Potted plants
are placed on wheeled aluminum benches, which move through the
greenhouse on steel rails.  An irrigation system delivers water to
the plants by flooding the benches with the desired amount of
water.  A heating system with controls provides the plants with
heat.  A machine adds moisture to the soil prior to planting.  A
machine cuts or pinches plants, and a vacuum machine (within the
cutting machine) cleans up the plant clippings.  A machine places
pots on the benches.  A table tipper stands dirty benches for
cleaning/washing.  A table stacker stacks the clean benches for
future use.  Other machinery, including extra mobile benches, is
included with the system.

     The subheading under consideration is as follows:

     8436.80.00: [o]ther agricultural, horticultural, forestry,
                 poultry-keeping or bee-keeping machinery,
                 including germination plant fitted with 
                 mechanical or thermal equipment . . . : [o]ther
                 machinery.

     Goods classifiable under this provision receive duty-free
     treatment.

ISSUE:

     Whether the greenhouse mobile benching system is classifiable
under subheading 8436.80.00, HTSUS, as other horticultural
machinery.

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

     Classification of merchandise under the HTSUS is in accordance
with the General Rules of Interpretation (GRI's), taken in order. 
GRI 1 provides that classification is determined according to the
terms of the headings and any relative section or chapter notes.

     Section XVI, note 3, HTSUS, states that:

     [u]nless the context otherwise requires, composite machines
     consisting of two or more machines fitted together to form a
     whole and other machines adapted for the purpose of
     performing two or more complementary or alternative 
     functions are to be classified as if consisting only of that
     component or as being that machine which performs the 
     principal function.

     Because, for classification purposes, the greenhouse mobile
benching system is a composite machine, we must determine its
principal function.

     In understanding the language of the HTSUS, the Harmonized
Commodity Description and Coding System Explanatory Notes may be
utilized.  The Explanatory Notes, although not dispositive, are to
be used to determine the proper interpretation of the HTSUS.  See
T.D. 89-80, 54 Fed. Reg. 35127, 35128 (August 23, 1989).  In part,
Explanatory Note 84.36 (p. 1217) states that:

     [t]he heading covers machinery, not falling in headings
     84.32 to 84.35, which is of the type used on farms
     (including agricultural schools, co-operatives or testing
     stations), in forestry, market gardens, or poultry-keeping
     or bee-keeping farms or the like.  However, it excludes
     machines clearly of a kind designed for industrial use.

     In HQ 074237, dated March 7, 1985, it was stated that:

     [h]orticulture is a branch of agriculture that deals with 
     the garden production of both food crops and ornamentals.

     It is our position that the greenhouse mobile benching system
is a composite machine the principal function of which is to
produce either crops or ornamentals.  Because the system is used
in the practice of horticulture, we find that it is classifiable
under subheading 8436.80.00, HTSUS.

HOLDING:

     The greenhouse mobile benching system is classifiable under
subheading 8436.80.00, HTSUS, as other horticultural machinery.

                           Sincerely,



                            John Durant, Director
                            Commercial Rulings Division