Country of origin determination for diamonds.

N270867 December 18, 2015 CLA-2:OT:RR:NC:N2:226 CATEGORY: Country of Origin Mr. Evert Phillip Botha Embee Diamonds 1203 Central Avenue Prince Albert, Saskatchewan S6V 4V9 Canada RE: Country of origin determination for diamonds. Dear Mr. Botha: In your letter dated November 20, 2015, you requested a country of origin determination ruling. The merchandise under consideration is diamonds. From the information you provided, the diamonds at issue belong to your customers in the United States. Your customers ship these diamonds to you in Canada for repair; you then return the repaired diamonds to their owners in the United States. However, these diamonds have been in circulation from 50-100 years, and you have no guarantee or record for the country of origin. You are unsure what country of origin should be declared when the diamonds are imported back into the United States. Because this matter concerns the diamonds’ country of origin, a marking exception may be appropriate. Section 304 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (19 U.S.C. § 1304), provides that, unless excepted, every article of foreign origin entering the U.S. shall be marked in a conspicuous manner as legibly, indelibly, and permanently as the nature of the article (or container) will permit, in such a manner as to indicate to the ultimate purchaser in the U.S. the English name of the country of origin of the article. An exception from marking is provided in 19 U.S.C. § 1304(a)(3)(H) and 19 C.F.R. § 134.32(h) where an ultimate purchaser, by reason of the character of the article or by reason of the circumstances of its importation, must necessarily know the country of origin of the article even though it is not marked to indicate its origin. Under 19 C.F.R. § 134.1, the “ultimate purchaser” is defined as “generally the last person in the United States who will receive the article in the form in which it was imported.” Here, the “ultimate purchaser” is the owners of the diamonds, because they are the last people in the United States who will receive the article in the form in which it was imported. Given the circumstances of the importation—namely the return of the diamonds to their owners—the ultimate purchaser “must necessarily know the country of origin of the article even though it is not marked to indicate its origin.” Therefore, we find that the diamonds for which you cannot, in good faith, determine the country of origin, may be exempt from the marking requirements under 19 U.S.C. § 1304(a)(3)(H) and 19 C.F.R. § 134.32(h). You may list the country of origin as “multi” on the entry form. 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 Nicole Sullivan at nicole.sullivan@dhs.gov. Sincerely, Gwenn Klein Kirschner Director National Commodity Specialist Division