H340672

 HQ H340672 March 5, 2025 OT:RR:CTF:VS H340672 RRB CATEGORY: Classification Patrick J. Togni King & Spalding LLP 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Suite 900 Washington, DC 20006 RE: Subheading 9802.00.80, HTSUS; silicon wafer; solar cells; solar panels Dear Mr. Togni: This is in response to your letter, dated July 19, 2024, on behalf of your client, Company A, in which you request a ruling concerning the applicability of subheading 9802.00.80, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (“HTSUS”) to certain solar cells and solar panels. On September 20, 2024, you sent us a supplemental submission in support of your ruling request. Pursuant to your request, a teleconference meeting was held between you and members of my staff on November 20, 2024. Subsequent to this meeting, you submitted a second supplemental submission on November 27, 2024, including a copy of your presentation from our November 20, 2024, meeting. Our decision below takes into account all of the information presented in the above-referenced submissions and meeting. You have asked that certain information submitted in connection with this request be treated as confidential. Inasmuch as this request conforms to the requirements of 19 C.F.R. § 177.2(b)(7), the request for confidentiality is approved. The information contained within brackets in your request will not be released to the public and will be withheld from published versions of this ruling. FACTS: Company A manufactures U.S.-origin crystalline silicon wafers that will be exported to a third country. In the third country, the U.S.-origin crystalline silicon wafers will be assembled into solar cells and solar panels, which will be imported into the United States. Upon entry, the declared origin of the solar cells and solar panels will be that of the third country where assembly takes place. You describe the manufacture of Company A’s crystalline silicon wafers in the United States from U.S.-origin polysilicon as consisting of the following steps: (1) inspection of the U.S.-origin polysilicon raw material; (2) filling the silicon dioxide crucible with the polysilicon raw material; (3) heating the crucible and pulling the monocrystalline ingot using the Czochralski method; (4) cropping the ingot into multiple sections called logs; (5) shaping the logs into square “bricks” with chamfers on each corner; (6) matching the bricks to accommodate the dimensions of the slicer; (7) slicing the wafers with a wiresaw; (8) debonding the backer board from the sliced wafers in order to wash the wafers; (9) conducting automated optical inspection of the wafers; (10) manual inspection of the wafer stacks with spot checks as needed; and (11) packaging and palletization of the completed wafers. We agree that based on the completion of these steps in the United States using U.S.-origin polysilicon, the country of origin of the crystalline silicon wafers that will be shipped to a third country for use in the assembly of solar cells and solar panels will be the United States. Company A’s ruling request relates to the following assembly steps involving its U.S.-origin crystalline silicon wafer, which will take place in a third country: Assembly Step 1: The U.S.-origin crystalline silicon wafers will be used in an assembly operation to create subassemblies in the assembly of solar cells in a third country. In some instances, these completed solar cells will be imported into the United States. Assembly Step 2: After the assembly of solar cells in a third country (described in Assembly Step 1), the assembly process may continue in other instances with the further assembly of those solar cells into solar panels in the same third country. Assembly Step 1: Assembly of U.S.-Origin Crystalline Silicon Wafers into Solar Cells in a Third Country Company A describes the assembly of its finished U.S.-origin crystalline silicon wafers for use as components in the assembly of solar cells with other foreign-origin components as a three-stage process involving various steps. The first stage consists of the U.S.-origin wafer to cell subassembly. This begins after the wafers are shipped from the United States to a third country, where the wafers are auto-sorted and visually inspected. The next step consists of texturing (i.e., anisotropic etching of the wafer surface to create pyramidal-like structures with feature sizes of approximately 5 micrometers). You characterize this process as involving 9 separate sub-steps, namely: 1) pre-cleaning; 2) deionized (“DI”) water cleaning; 3) texturing; 4) DI water cleaning; 5) “post-cleaning” (or alkaline cleaning); 6) DI water cleaning; 7) acid cleaning; 8) DI water cleaning; and 9) drying. As part of the texturing sub-step, the wafers are submerged in certain chemicals to cut or trim away small amounts of the wafer surface. Company A asserts that texturing is akin to “trimming, filing, or cutting of excess materials” to reveal pre-existing U.S.-origin pyramidal structures on the surface of the wafer due to direction-dependent etch rates of the atomic structure of the material. These pyramidal structures are not added to the wafer, cut with an external pattern, or molded onto the surface, but are inherent to the wafer when they are exported from the United States. According to Company A, the silicon wafer upon which texturing is performed is a crystalline material comprised of atoms arranged in a symmetric, repeating pattern. Company A further asserts that the texturing process does not chemically alter the wafer or give it new chemical characteristics. Instead, they claim that the process simply detaches atoms using potassium hydroxide, removes the material, and does not leave a chemical product or byproduct behind. Company A also explains that the pyramidal structures on the wafer surface that are revealed, via texturing, enable more photon capture. According to Company A, texturing is performed on the wafers after they are exported to a third country from the United States in order to mitigate the risk of damage during handling prior to use, to enable cleaning, and to enable the texturing process to be performed in a suitable cleanroom environment after transportation to the assembly site in the third country. Company A explains that the second stage of the assembly process consists of cell subassembly to solar cell. Diffusion is performed during this stage. The diffusion step takes place after the U.S.-origin wafer has been assembled in the cell subassembly. After the wafer undergoes texturing, a chemical gas is used to create the positive/negative junction. Company A describes the third assembly stage as consisting of additional steps performed after diffusion on the solar cell using foreign-origin components in the third country. Some of these steps include application of a back-side coating layer on the cell through Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (“PECVD”), application of a front-side anti-reflective coating on the cell via PECVD, metallic screen printing, and testing cell efficiency. At this point, some portion of the solar cells that contain the U.S.-origin wafer will be packaged for exportation to the United States. Assembly Step 2: Assembly of the Solar Cell Subassemblies into Solar Panels Some of solar cells, however, will be sent to another facility in the third country for assembly into solar panels for exportation to the United States. At this point, the solar cell subassemblies undergo the following steps as part of their assembly into solar panels: 1) soldering (i.e., a series of solar cells will be soldered together); 2) layup (i.e., the soldered solar cells will be laid out in a cell matrix and the busbar connections will be soldered); 3) lamination (i.e., encapsulating the layup materials between glass and a backsheet; 4) pressing into an aluminum frame; 5) attaching the frame to a junction box; 6) testing; and 7) inspection. Once these steps are completed, the assembled solar panels will be pack

Subheading 9802.00.80, HTSUS, provides a partial duty exemption for:Articles . . . assembled abroad in whole or in part of fabricated components, the product of the United States, which (a) were exported in condition ready for assembly without further fabrication, (b) have not lost their physical identity in such articles by change in form, shape or otherwise, and (c) have not been advanced in value or improved in condition abroad except by being assembled and except by operations incidental to the assembly process such as cleaning, lubricating and painting[.]All three requirements of subheading 9802.00.80, HTSUS, must be satisfied before an article may receive a duty allowance. An article entered under this tariff provision is subject to duty upon the full appraised value of the imported assembled article, less the cost or value of the U.S. components assembled therein, upon compliance with the documentation requirements of 19 C.F.R. § 10.24.Section 10.14(a), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) Regulations (19 C.F.R. § 10.14(a)), states in part that:[t]he components must be in condition ready for assembly without further fabrication at the time of their exportation from the United States to qualify for the exemption. Components will not lose their entitlement to the exemption by being subjected to operations incidental to the assembly either before, during, or after their assembly with other components.Section 10.16(a), CBP Regulations (19 C.F.R. § 10.16(a)), provides that “the assembly operations performed abroad may consist of any method used to join or fit together solid components, such as welding, soldering, riveting, force fitting, gluing, laminating, sewing, or the use of fasteners. . ..”Operations incidental to the assembly process are not considered further fabrication operations as they are of a minor nature and cannot always be provided for in advance of the assembly operations. See 19 C.F.R. § 10.16(b). However, any significant process, operation