The country of origin of a pliers

N331651 March 27, 2023 OT:RR:NC:N1: 118 CATEGORY: Origin Eric Lee Zhangjiagang Tianhua Hardware Co., Ltd XinLe Rd, DaXin Town, Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu ProvinceZhangjiagang 215636China RE: The country of origin of a pliers Dear Mr. Lee: In your letter dated March 21, 2023, you requested a ruling on the country of origin of three different types of pliers.  The pliers are identified as Long Nose Pliers, Linesman Pliers, and Diagonal Pliers.  You provided photographs and descriptions of each stage of the manufacturing process for each of the pliers.  The features and characteristics of these pliers are as follows: Long Nose Pliers (also known as needle-nose pliers) are gripping, pinching, and holding pliers.  They incorporate long thin jaws with a small cutting edge near the pliers’ joint.  They are made of two pieces of steel, with each piece providing half of the handle and half of the working end.  When joined together, the joint provides a fulcrum that transfers and increases the force applied to the handles by the user to the working end. Lineman’s Pliers are a type of pliers used by linemen, electrical contractors, and other tradesmen primarily for gripping, twisting, bending, and cutting wire, cable, and small metalwork components.  They are made of two pieces of steel, with each piece providing half of the handle and half of the working end.  They have a beveled cutting edge near the joint of the working end’s jaw and teeth for gripping at the end of the nose. Diagonal Pliers (also known as wire cutters, side-cutting pliers, and diagonal cutters) are pliers intended for cutting wire.  They are made of two pieces of steel, with each piece providing half of the handle and half of the working end.  The plane defined by the cutting edges of the jaws intersects the joint rivet at an angle or “on a diagonal”.  The jaw edges are ground to a symmetrical “V” shape, and they cut by indenting and wedging the wire apart. The manufacturing process for the three pliers is as follows: The Long Nose Pliers' handles and jaws are drop-forged from raw steel rods in Vietnam, forming the rough shape of each handle and jaw.  Further in Vietnam, each handle is die-cut, and burs are removed.  The two halves of the pliers (i.e., the pieces incorporating the handles and jaws) are then sent to China, where two holes are drilled into each piece so that they can be joined together.  Teeth are then cut into the jaws and the pieces undergo heat-treatment and polishing.  Finally, the two halves are assembled with a pin, soft grips are slipped over the handles, and the finished pliers are packaged for retail sale. The manufacturing process for the Linesman Pliers involves drop forging raw steel rods in Vietnam to create the basic shape of the handle and jaw.  The handle and jaw blanks are then die-cut and deburred to remove any sharp edges.  The two halves are then sent to China, where holes are drilled into each blank, and teeth are cut into the jaws.  They are joined together by rivets and the pliers are heat-treated and polished.  Finally, the handles are covered with soft grips and the finished pilers are packaged for retail sale. The proposed manufacturing process for the Diagonal Pliers involves the drop forging and molding of raw steel rods in Vietnam to produce the two handle and jaw pieces of the pliers.  These two pieces are also die-cut and deburred in Vietnam before being sent to China for heat treatment, polishing, and assembly with a pin and soft-grip handle covers. Regarding your request for the appropriate country of origin of the pliers, 19 C.F.R. § 134.1(b) provides in pertinent part as follows: Country of origin means the country of manufacture, production, or growth of any article of foreign origin entering the United States.  Further work or material added to an article in another country must effect a substantial transformation in order to render such other country the “country of origin” within the meaning of this part; The test for determining whether a substantial transformation will occur is whether an article emerges from a process with a new name, character, and use, different from that possessed by the article prior to processing.  See Texas Instruments Inc. v. United States, 69 C.C.P.A. 151 (1982).  This determination is based on the totality of the evidence.  See National Hand Tool Corp. v. United States, 16 C.I.T. 308 (1992), aff’d, 989 F.2d 1201 (Fed. Cir. 1993). In order to determine whether a substantial transformation occurs when components of various origins are assembled into completed products, all factors such as the components used to create the product and manufacturing processes that these components undergo are considered in order to determine whether a product with a new name, character, and use has been produced.  No one factor is decisive, and assembly operations that are minimal will generally not result in a substantial transformation.  In our view, the pliers’ handles and jaws constitute the essence of the finished pliers.  In each of the proposed manufacturing scenarios for the three pliers, raw steel is drop forged in Vietnam into plier handles and jaws that have the shape and form of the final product.  The handles and jaws are also die cut and deburred in Vietnam.  As a result of these operations, the handles and jaws are dedicated for use as pliers upon export from Vietnam.  The Chinese processing consists of heat treating, drilling the fulcrum holes, polishing, and simple assembly with a pin or rivet, and handle grips.  Based on the provided description of the assembly and processing operations performed in China, the handles and jaws are not substantially changed by the addition of the remaining components nor are the assembly operations complex enough so as to transform the handles and jaws into a new article.  Therefore, it is the opinion of this office that the country of origin of the Long Nose Pliers, Linesman’s Pliers and Diagonal Pliers is Vietnam. Please note that 19 C.F.R. § 177.9(b)(1) provides that “[e]ach ruling letter is issued on the assumption that all the information furnished in connection with the ruling request and incorporated in the ruling letter, either directly, by reference, or by implication, is accurate and complete in every material respect.  The application of a ruling letter by a CBP field office to the transaction to which it is purported to relate is subject to the verification of the facts incorporated in the ruling letter, a comparison of the transaction described therein to the actual transaction, and the satisfaction of any conditions on which the ruling was based.” 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, please contact National Import Specialist Anthony Grossi at anthony.e.grossi@cbp.dhs.gov. Sincerely, Steven A. Mack Director National Commodity Specialist Division