H299808

HQ H299808 February 3, 2020 OT:RR:CTF:EMAIN H299808 SK CATEGORY: Classification TARIFF NO.: 8436.80.00 Director Armando Taboada Machinery Center of Excellence and Expertise U.S. Customs and Border Protection 109 Shiloh Drive, Suite 300 Laredo, TX 78045 Attn: Jeffrey Kiekenbush , Senior Import Specialist; Lisa Ashmus, Supervisory Import Specialist RE: Request for Internal Advice; classification of a “Milk Taxi”; portable machine for feeding calves. Dear Director: This is in response to your request for Internal Advice (“IA”), dated August 6, 2018, made pursuant to 19 C.F.R. § 177.11 of Title 19 of the Code of Federal Regulations (19 C.F.R. §177.11). The IA request was initiated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (“CBP”) Machinery Center of Excellence and Expertise at the request of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A., on behalf of their client, Abts Bou-Matic, LLC (hereinafter “ABM”). The IA concerns the classification of a Holm and Laue (“H&L”) Milk Taxi (“Milk Taxi”) under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (“HTSUS”). FACTS: The Holm & Laue Milk Taxi is a portable machine for use on dairy farms in calf feeding operations. Its functions are described as follows: Calculates feed amounts per calf or group or calves Provides operator readouts Mixes ingredients via an agitator Transports milk products to calf feeding pens via wheeled chassis Maintains desired feeding temperatures via slight heating or cooling actions Performs semi-automatic self-cleaning The Milk Taxi’s standard features include: Stainless steel tank with drain tap Portable 4-wheeled chassis Agitator Electronic liquid level sensor Thermometer LED headlights Hose and nozzle Semi-automatic self-cleaner The Milk Taxi is available with an optional pasteurization feature that heats milk to higher temperatures for prescribed periods of time to reduce or eliminate certain types of bacteria from milk. These models use cold water inside a double-walled tank to act as a cooling jacket for heat exchange. This feature is not standard as not all milk products fed to calves are pasteurized (i.e., colostrum). ISSUE: Whether the subject Milk Taxi is classifiable under subheading 8419, HTSUS, which provides for, in pertinent part, machinery, plant, or laboratory equipment, whether or not electrically heated, for the treatment of materials by a process involving a change of temperature, under heading 8434, HTSUS, which provides for, in pertinent part, milking machines, or under heading 8436, HTSUS, which provides for, in pertinent part, other agricultural machinery. LAW AND ANALYSIS: Classification under the HTSUS is in accordance with the General Rules of Interpretation (GRIs). GRI 1 provides that the classification of goods will be determined according to the terms of the headings of the tariff schedule and any relative section or chapter notes. In the event that the goods cannot be classified solely on the basis of GRI 1, and if the headings and legal notes do not otherwise require, the remaining GRIs 2 through 6 will then be applied in order. GRI 6 provides that classification of goods at the subheading level will be determined according to the terms of those subheadings and any related subheading notes and, mutatis mutandis, to the preceding GRIs on the understanding that only subheadings at the same level are comparable. The HTSUS provisions under consideration are set forth below: 8419 Machinery, plant or laboratory equipment, whether or not electrically heated (excluding furnaces, ovens and other equipment of heading 8514), for the treatment of materials by a process involving a change of temperature such as heating, cooking, roasting, distilling, rectifying, sterilizing, pasteurizing, steaming, drying, evaporating, vaporizing, condensing or cooling, other than machinery or plant of a kind used for domestic purposes; instantaneous or storage water heaters, nonelectric; parts thereof 8434 Milking machines and dairy machinery, and parts thereof: 8436 Other agricultural, horticultural, forestry, poultry-keeping or bee-keeping machinery, including germination plant fitted with mechanical or thermal equipment; poultry incubators and brooders; parts thereof: Section XVI Note 3 provides: 3. Unless the context otherwise requires, composite machines consisting of two or more machines fitted together to form a whole and other machines designed 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. Note 2 to Chapter 84, HTSUS, states, in relevant part: 2. Subject to the operation of Note 3 to Section XVI and subject to Note 9 of this chapter, a machine or appliance which answers to a description in one or more of the headings of 8401 to 8424, or heading 8486 and at the same time to a description in one or more of the heading 8425 to 8480 is to be classified under the appropriate heading of the former group or under heading 8486, as the case may be, and not the latter group. Heading 8419 does not, however, cover: * * * (e) Machinery, plant or laboratory equipment, designed for mechanical operation, in which a change of temperature, even if necessary, is subsidiary…. * * * The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System Explanatory Notes (“ENs”) constitute the official interpretation of the Harmonized System at the international level. While not legally binding, the ENs provide a commentary on the scope of each heading of the HTS and are thus useful in ascertaining the proper classification of merchandise. It is CBP’s practice to follow, whenever possible the terms of the ENs when interpreting the HTSUS. See T.D. 89-90, 54 Fed. Reg. 35127, 35128 (August 23, 1989). The ENs to heading 84.19 provide, in relevant part: [T]he heading covers machinery and plant designed to submit materials (solid, liquid or gaseous) to a heating or cooling process in order to cause a simple change of temperature, or to cause a transformation of the materials resulting principally from the temperature change (e.g., heating, cooking, roasting, distilling, rectifying, sterilising, pasteurising, steaming, drying, evaporating, vaporising, condensing or cooling processes). But the heading excludes machinery and plant in which the heating or cooling, even if essential, is merely a secondary function designed to facilitate the main mechanical function of the machine or plant, e.g., machines for coating biscuits, etc., with chocolate, and conches (heading 84.38), washing machines (heading 84.50 or 84.51), machines for spreading and tamping bituminous road-surfacing materials (heading 84.79). The machinery and plant classified in this heading may or may not incorporate mechanical equipment. * * * The ENs to heading 84.34 provide: This heading covers mechanical milking machines, and other machinery, whether for farm or industrial purposes, used in the treatment of milk or for converting it into other dairy products. (I) MILKING MACHINES A milking machine comprises a cluster of teatcups (each with a rubber liner) which are connected, by means of flexible tubing, on one side to a vacuum pump unit via a pulsator and on the other to a milk pail (usually of stainless metal). The pulsator, which is fixed to the lid of the milk pail, acts on the teatcups by alternating atmospheric pressure with a comparative vacuum between the cups and the liners. The assembly formed by the teatcup cluster, the pulsator and the milk pail is described as a “milking pail”. In certain machines of smaller capacity, the milking pails and the vacuum pump unit may be on a common base (single or twinpail machines). In the machines of larger capacity, the various components are usually separate. A variable number of milking pails may be connected to the vacuum pump unit by piping. Certain types have no milk pails, the milk passing directly from the teatcups to the cooling apparatus or storage t

Classification under the HTSUS is in accordance with the General Rules of Interpretation (GRIs). GRI 1 provides that the classification of goods will be determined according to the terms of the headings of the tariff schedule and any relative section or chapter notes. In the event that the goods cannot be classified solely on the basis of GRI 1, and if the headings and legal notes do not otherwise require, the remaining GRIs 2 through 6 will then be applied in order. GRI 6 provides that classification of goods at the subheading level will be determined according to the terms of those subheadings and any related subheading notes and, mutatis mutandis, to the preceding GRIs on the understanding that only subheadings at the same level are comparable. The HTSUS provisions under consideration are set forth below:8419     Machinery, plant or laboratory equipment, whether or not electrically heated (excluding furnaces, ovens and other equipment of heading 8514), for the treatment of materials by a process involving a change of temperature such as heating, cooking, roasting, distilling, rectifying, sterilizing, pasteurizing, steaming, drying, evaporating, vaporizing, condensing or cooling, other than machinery or plant of a kind used for domestic purposes; instantaneous or storage water heaters, nonelectric; parts thereof8434 Milking machines and dairy machinery, and parts thereof: 8436 Other agricultural, horticultural, forestry, poultry-keeping or bee-keeping machinery, including germination plant fitted with mechanical or thermal equipment; poultry incubators and brooders; parts thereof: Section XVI Note 3 provides:3.   Unless the context otherwise requires, composite machines consisting of two or more machines fitted together to form a whole and other machines designed 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 functio