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NY N009884




April 27, 2007

CLA-2-98:RR:E:NC:TA:348

CATEGORY: CLASSIFICATION

TARIFF NO.: 9802.00.5060; 9801.00.1097

Raymond Hasson
Independent Brokerage, LLC
10 Fifth Street
Suite 403
Valley Stream, NY 11581

RE: Eligibility under 9802.00.5060 or 9801.00.1097 of cowhide grained leather from Korea.

Dear Mr. Hasson:

In your letter dated April 17, 2007 on behalf of your client, Leather Trends, Inc., you requested a tariff classification ruling.

You provided illustrative material of trimmed, fleshed United States (U.S.) origin raw bovine hides which will be exported to Korea for processing. No samples were provided to U. S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). You state the processing in Korea will include unhairing and liming; splitting; chrome tanning; shaving; re-tanning and dyeing; air dyeing; wet toggle drying; re-conditioning with water; dry milling; sorting for selection; spray finishing with additional dyes and waxes; smooth rolling and ironing; measuring; and packaging for export.

You request a ruling as to the eligibility for a partial duty exemption under 9802.00.5060, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), which provides for articles returned to the U.S. after having been exported to be advanced in value or improved in condition by any process of manufacture or other means: articles exported for repairs or alterations, other.

Subheading 9802.00.50, HTSUS, provides a partial duty exemption for articles returned to the United States after having been exported to be advanced in value or improved in condition by means of repairs or alterations. Entitlement to this tariff treatment is precluded in circumstances where the operations performed abroad destroy the identity of the articles or create new or commercially different articles. Tariff treatment under subheading 9802.00.50, HTSUS, is also precluded where the exported articles are incomplete for their intended use prior to the foreign processing. The processing creates cowhide grained leather for garments of raw hides. Furthermore, the raw bovine hides cannot be used as leather prior to the processing in Korea. The processing creates a new and commercially different article and the article is incomplete for its intended use prior to such processing.

You also requested consideration of the eligibility of 9801.00.1097. Subheading 9801.00.10, HTSUS, provides for the free entry of products of the U.S. that are exported and returned without having been advanced in value or improved in condition by any process of manufacture or other means while abroad. Entitlement to this tariff treatment is precluded in circumstances where operations have been performed abroad. The U.S origin raw bovine hides are exported to Korea and are subjected to the processing, described above, in Korea.

Raw bovine hides shipped from the United States to Korea where they are processed into cowhide grained leather are not eligible for treatment under 9802.00.50 or 9801.0010. The cowhide grained leather will be dutiable at full value when imported into the United States.

This ruling is being issued under the provisions of Part 177 of the Customs Regulations (19 C.F.R. 177).

A copy of the ruling or the control number indicated above should be provided with the entry documents filed at the time this merchandise is imported. If you have any questions regarding the ruling, contact National Import Specialist Rosemarie Hayward at 646-733-3064.

Sincerely,

Robert B. Swierupski
Director,

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