The tariff classification of plastic hangers

N256294 August 26, 2014 CLA-2-39:OT:RR:NC:N4:421 CATEGORY: Classification TARIFF NO.: 3923.90.0080 Ms. Cindy Kilgore Lanier Clothes 999 Peachtree Street, Suite 500 Atlanta, GA 30309 RE: The tariff classification of plastic hangers Dear Ms. Kilgore: In your letter dated August 5, 2014, you requested a tariff classification ruling. Four samples were included with your request. All are hangers made of black plastic with a metal swivel top hanging hook. Styles 50, 209 and 3556 are top hangers with a contoured, hollow inverted V shape molded to incorporate crossbars. Style PT36 is a closed blanket hanger with a foam sleeve over the bottom bar and a rubber band around tabs projecting below either end of the bar. The applicable subheading for the plastic hangers, if imported separately, will be 3923.90.0080, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), which provides for articles for the conveyance or packing of goods, of plastics, other. The general rate of duty will be 3 percent ad valorem. You have not identified the country of origin. The rate of duty provided above is the rate applicable to the hangers when they are manufactured in a country with which the United States has Normal Trade Relations. Duty rates are provided for your convenience and are subject to change. The text of the most recent HTSUS and the accompanying duty rates are provided on World Wide Web at http://www.usitc.gov/tata/hts/. You ask whether the hangers, when imported holding garments, may be classified separately from the garments. General Rule of Interpretation (GRI) 5(b) of the HTSUS provides that, subject to the provisions of GRI 5(a), packing materials and packing containers entered with the goods therein shall be classified with the goods if they are of a kind normally used for packing such goods. However, this provision is not binding when such materials or packing containers are clearly suitable for repetitive use. The sample hangers are of a kind normally used for the shipment of garments, and they are classifiable with the garments unless they are clearly suitable for repetitive use. In HQ 964963, 964964 and 964948, all dated June 19, 2001, Customs Headquarters ruled that certain hangers that were of substantial construction and that were used in hanger recovery systems for the repeated international transport of garments were suitable for repetitive use for the conveyance of goods and could be classified separately in subheading 3923.90.00, HTSUS, even when imported with garments. Documents were provided to verify the claim that a substantial portion of the hangers that were the subject of those rulings were forwarded to a hanger supply company and then sorted, sanitized and sold to garment vendors for use in packing, shipping, and transporting other garments. The hangers had a useful life of four to six cycles. In HQ 964963, Headquarters noted that actual reuse of the hangers is not necessary as long as the hangers are substantial and are of the class or kind of goods used for the conveyance of garments. You have described four scenarios for the hangers. In scenario 1, the retailers will sell the garments with the hangers attached for use by the customer at home. In scenario 2 the retailers will retain the hangers and comingle with other hangers collected throughout the store for later reuse or sale to companies who can reuse the hangers. In scenario 3 the retailers will collect the hangers for recycling. In scenario 4 the retailers will use the hangers within their stores for hanging other garments. You add that the hangers can also be reused in your own distribution centers. Please note that reuse of these hangers by the consumer in his own closet as described in scenario 1 or by the retailer in his own store as described in scenario 4 is not the repetitive use that is described in HQ 963964, 964964 and 964948. The hangers in scenario 3 are collected for recycling rather than reuse. It is unclear what you mean when you state that in scenario 2 the hangers may be reused or sold to companies who can reuse the hangers or when you state that the hangers can be reused in your own distribution centers. We note that the hangers of your inquiry are not similar in style or construction to the hangers in the HQ rulings cited above. They appear to be of a type generally used for one-time shipping of garments and given to the customer with the garment at the point of sale. This office has no evidence that hangers of these styles and constructions are of a kind commercially reused for conveyance of garments, and you have not submitted any information or documentation demonstrating repeated use of these particular styles or of similar styles for the commercial shipment of garments. In the absence of such evidence, the hangers are considered to be ordinary packing for the garments with which they are imported. Evidence that these hangers are suitable for reuse would include invoices or other documentation verifying re-sales of these styles of hangers, after their original use, to garment vendors for use in packing, shipping and transportation of garments. If you can provide such information, you may wish to consider resubmission of your request. In the absence of such evidence, these hangers, when imported with garments, are classifiable with those garments, and are dutiable at the same rate of duty as those garments, in accordance with the provisions of GRI 5(b). 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 Joan Mazzola at joan.m.mazzola@cbp.dhs.gov. Sincerely, Gwenn Klein Kirschner Director National Commodity Specialist Division