>> CHRISSI GUTH: Good afternoon. I
am Chrissi Guth with CBP office with
trade relations and today's webinar is
classification of bamboo Chapter 44,
HTSUS.
The webinar is a part of the NCSD's
2023 webinar series. Please be mindful
that you will be on mute during the
presentation. Therefore, we ask that
you submit any questions you have in the
chat feature. Now I like to pass it
over to national import specialist,
Laurel Duvall.
>> LAUREL DUVALL: Hi, everybody.
Welcome. Hopefully you're all settled
now. My name is Laurel Duvall. I'm the
national import specialist for wood
products. If that doesn't sound
familiar to you, you might know me by my
former name, Wood Princess. That's what
it shows on my business card and today
we are here to talk about bamboo
classification. So if you have worked
with classifying bamboo products, you
know they can be a little tricky. So,
hopefully, we'll get you little bit of
clarification today. And if nothing
else, you get my email address so you
can ask me some time later. As Chrissy
noted, if you have questions today
during our presentation, please put them
in the chat and we'll address them at
the end. The presentation is about an
hour. And you'll probably notice that
there are people from CBP and from the
trade here on our presentation today.
And so if you happen to be in the
bamboo industry, and I'm telling you
things that you already completely know,
sorry about that. Please be patient
with me as I'm sharing the information
with a lot of different audiences. So
hang in there.
And let's get going. I'm going to
turn off my camera so you don't get
distracted by my face. [Laughter]
because it can be distracting that way.
But let's get going on bamboo. Okay.
Sorry. New computer sys.
Here we go. All right. So here is
my contact information. Please contact
me by email. That's the best way to get
a hold of me. I'm not necessarily
always in the office and I like to get
you an answer quickly. I do answer
everything. I'm kind of weird that way.
So if you have a question, please let
me know. Please do not contact me and
ask me what the classification of your
product is. I don't give classification
advice. We only give binding
determinations here. So I can talk to
you about what things mean, but I'm not
going to classify your products for you.
And also if you're in CBP, please don't
instant message me. I can't always drop
what I'm doing and so the best way to
get hold of me is by email.
Okay. So as always, quick
disclaimer. This webinar is for general
information purposes only. And
listening to it does not constitute
reasonable care. So if some import
specialist sends you a rate advance and
your answer is, well, Laurel said blah,
blah in a webinar, that's not reason
enough. The best thing to do is to get
yourself a binding classification
ruling. And they are easy to get. You
can request them electronically now. E
ruling start CBP.gov. They are free.
So you don't have to pay a sent for
them. Assuming you provide us with all
the information that we need, your
ruling will be issued within 30 days
from the date of receipt. So you won't
be sitting around waiting for them
either.
The important thing to note is
national comomed tea specialist division
can issue rulings on prospective
transactions. Things we haven't
imported yet, we can't rule on current
or past transactions. So if you get
that rate of advance and you don't agree
with the specialist, you can't come to
us to get a ruling, because it's a
current transaction.
Also it's important to note that we
cannot rule on matters of antidumping or
Countervailing duties. That is
jurisdiction of commerce. And we get
asked all the time, what's the
classification, am I good to
antidumping? Unfortunately, we can't
tell you. If you want the formal
ruling, you have to go to development of
commerce. So let's talk about bamboo.
Of course, you hear about bamboo a
lot in the market and in the media, and
you know, it's a green material. And
all of that. But bamboo is kind of
unique and cool. It's the world's
fastest producer of biomass. It can
literally grow up to a meter a day. If
you're not metric inclined, that means
over a yard a day. Manning sitting in
your kitchen and watching a tree grow a
yard in one day. That would be crazy,
right? But that's the great thing about
bamboo is that it's superfast growing.
It's a grass. It's not a tree. And as
material, it's highly durable and
versatile. And when it's used in place
of wood, it reduces pressure on hardwood
forest. So it's a unique and great
material to be working with from my
perspective.
I recommend you don't underestimate
the possibilities of bamboo. Long gone
are the days when bamboo was used
forecast away huts on desert aisles.
You know, this building you see in the
center picture is a welcome center for
resort in Vietnam. It's a highly
durable material that's, you know, very
workable. So it can be made into these
intricate buildings. And it's totally
stable as standard construction
buildings may be. So it's a really
interesting material.
And if you happen to have aired on
to Hong Kong or another Asian city, you
might see ultra modern skyscraper with
primitive bamboo scaffolding. It's a
really great material for this. It's
cheap. It's strong. It's lightweight.
And it actually has benefits over the
kind of steel scaffolding that we're
accustomed to in the U.S. And it's just
interesting to see in action.
But today, we're going to be talking
about bamboo classification,
specifically in Chapter 44. And the
kinds of products we're going to be
seeing there are things like building
materials, molding, flooring. We're
going to talk a lot about flooring here
today. And just, you know, materials
that typically go into construction of
buildings and other structures. So
let's get with it.
Okay. So bamboo is grass. Chapter
44 is where wood is classified. So why
is grass classified with wood? And the
reason is note 6 to Chapter 44. And
note 6 specifically tell us that any
reference to the word "wood" in Chapter
44 in any heading of Chapter 44 applies
also to bamboo and other materials of
Woody nature.
So bamboo is a material of Woody
nature. If you look at a piece of
bamboo flooring, for all intents and
purposes, it's pretty much the same as
wood. So that is why, you know, all of
these products go directly to Chapter 44
for classification and not to some place
where other vegetable materials are
classified. Now, look at the structure
of bamboo and see what you notice about
it.
One, it's round. That's different.
It's hollow. The wall of bamboo has a
relatively thin cross-section. So in
this case, probably 5 to 6-millimeter on
the pole to the left. Generally
speaking, compared to trees, the
diameter is much smaller. The interior
of it is broken into, like, large open
cells with you can see these kinds of
horizontal breaks on the inside of the
bamboo poles. And all of these things
impact how bamboo is used in
manufacturing.
So bamboo is hollow and has a narrow
cross-section. So what does that mean
for its use as a construction material?
Well, bamboo isn't like wood. It's not
like a tree. It's not solid. So it's
not like with a tree trunk, you can't
cut a big slab of it, right? It's not
solid. It's hollow. So all you have to
work with is that wall, right? And it's
only so thick. So how do you get that
material and make larger things out of
it? Right? Because there's not a lot
of material, and it's what is there is
limited in size. So if you imagine the
wall being broken down into several
pieces, you know, around the
circumference of it, you get pieces of
workable material.
And they tend to look like these
strips on the left. Okay, so you can
see these strips are 5, 6, 7-millimeter
thick, and maybe 1 to 2-centimeter in
width. But you're not going to get
anything much bigger out of bamboo. So
bamboo products can't be made of solid
uninterrupted bamboo, or for the most
part, every once in a while that can be
made of solid uninterrupted bamboo, but
for the most part, even small items have
to be made of multiple pieces of bamboo
bonded together to form a large hole.
So you see these two moldings here. T
molding and a quarter round. And this
quart rawnd is an one niche square. And
you can see the semis of multiple pieces
of bamboo glued together to form a
whole. So small molding that's not even
an inch square, it still requires that
pieces of Bambi glued together to form a
larger piece of material to make things
out of.
And same thing with this T molding.
You can see these seems all the way
across. It shows that the molding is
made of several strips glued
side-by-side.
Okay, and just a few things about
features of bamboo. Nodes. Do you see
these circular rings around the bamboo
poles that, you know, are just what you
imagine when you think of bamboo, these
circular rings. And they're called
nodes. And internal to the bamboo,
they're actually these diaphragms that
act as mechanical support to the inside
of the pole. So this, you know, shows
that the pole is hollow. But it does
have these breaks in it. And
interestingly, they're recognizable in
certain products. So I'll show you how
to recognize them. So here is the top
of the surface of a horizontal bamboo
flooring panel. And you can see these
little areas where it looks like there's
kind of a crunch of the little lines and
dots, and you know, looks like two
pieces kind of colliding together.
Those are the nodes. So those are where
the horizontal dividing diaphragms from
inside the pole, those are where they
show up in the bamboo product. So if
you see something like this, if I give
you a piece of a -- you know, if I give
you a piece of flooring panel and you
see those nodes, it's a dead give away
that it's a product made of bamboo. So
it's useful.
Okay, also, carbonized. If you're
looking at entry documents for bamboo
products, you're often going to see the
word "carbonized" or "natural" on it.
It's heat treating, steaming, or smoking
the bamboo to give it a darker color.
Carbonizing, you can see on the left,
this is what color natural bamboo
usually is, this light blonde color and
carbonized is a darker color. It's
important to know car Bobbizeing doesn't
impact classification. But if you see
it on a document, you know what it's
talking about.
The thing that does govern
classification is construction. First
and foremost with bamboo products, the
construction is going to be the most
important thing you're going to have to
concern yourself with. So all three of
these products are classified by their
construction. You can see this top one
on the left has these strips glued
side-by-side. This one in the center is
actually strands all agglomerated
together so they're pushed, pressed
together in a block. And this one on
the right is actually a plywood
construction so, these are all going to
be treated differently.
The three most common constructions
you're going to see, you know, because
chances are most of what you're going to
see is going to be flooring. They're
horizontal, vertical, and strand. Okay,
so this is what horizontal looks like.
Horizontal bamboo flooring is almost
always 3 layers. And the strips are
glued together side-by-side along their
narrow edges. So it's going to form
this up in the air. And they're usually
made of 3 layers. Okay? Now, if you
look at the profile of each individual
strip, you'll see where at least I
believe the word "horizontal" comes
from, because the strips are oriented in
a horizontal direction.
Vertical is where the strips are
stood up on the narrow sides and glued
together wide facessed to wide faced.
And these are oriented in a single
layer. And if you look at the profile
of a single strip, you can see that it's
oriented in a vertical manner relative
to the horizontal. So you can see the
difference. And there's this strand.
And I've got this cookie, you know,
squiggly that I've drawn here. And
strand is almost what it sounds like
where strands or like shreds are bamboo
are pressed together into a block. It's
made these bamboo strands. So those are
the 3 that you're going to see the most
often.
Okay. So the important thing to
know about bamboo is that because all of
these items have to be made of multiple
pieces of bamboo or multiple strands all
put together, they're not considered
solid wood for classification purposes.
It's really important. You might see
something on an invoice saying solid
bamboo flooring. It's not solid. It's
multiple pieces of wood, either
laminated or bonded together, or
agglomerated strands. So none of these
products here that you see here, you can
see the top one has a horizontal
orientation, the middle one has a
vertical, and the bottom has a strand.
None of these are considered solid wood
for classification purposes.
Okay, I have couple of funny slides
in the middle of this, you know, to give
you a moment's break. And I saw this,
and it was just about the funniest thing
I've ever seen. You know how people go
out and do yoga on paddle boards? Well,
why do that when you can challenge
yourself more by going on the water and
balancing on a bamboo pole. [Laughter]
they're lying there in the splits.
[Laughter] I'm sorry. [Laughter] it
still makes me laugh every time I look
at it. I give these people creativity.
Paddle boards are so lame. These are so
much better. Onward. Okay.
So where are bamboo products
classified? Classification, first and
foremost, like I said depends on the
construction. And secondly, it depends
on the identity of the product. Okay?
So you're going to be asking yourself a
lot of questions. Is the product
flooring? Is it plywood? Is it a
molding? Is it multilayer? How thick
is the face ply? What's the use of the
product? Is it used in the construction
of the building? All these things
impact classification. So just so
you're aware, it's not usually super
straightforward where it guess. So
let's talk about the classifications
themselves.
Veneers of heading 4408. You're
probably not going to be classifying
many of these, but it's ponder to
understand the veneers of bamboo. So
veneer by tariff definition is a sheet
of wood measuring 6-millimeter or less
in thickness. So this picture on the
left, this top one looks like what you
expect of a typical veneer. It's super
thin. But bottom picture is also a
veneer. Okay? Even though it looks
like a thin board instead of a thin
sheet. As long as it is a sheet of some
variety, and it is at least no more than
6-millimeter in thickness, then it is
considered a veneer. And you're going
to see these veneers placed on top of
different substrates, like with
engineered flooring.
So the important thing to know about
veneers is that the explanatory note
tell us that the veneers can be made in
two ways. And if you deal with plywood,
and regular wood veneer products, you
know veneers are period from the log.
They take a log and put it on the
spinned dull and spin the log and the
veneer peels off of it like a role of
paper towels. But the explanatory notes
also tell you also if the V can be slice
dollars from a block of pieces that are
laminated together or wood that's
agglomerated together, if you take
bamboo strips and you glue them
altogether and make a great big block,
and you slice off 4-millimeter thick
sheets off of this block, those are
considered veneers too. So even though
it's a manufactured product, and it's
not just peeled directly from a log,
it's still considered a veneer. But 6
millimeters is that dividing line.
Okay. 4409. This is a really
interesting topic here, to me. I'll say
everything here is interesting to me. I
can't speak for anybody else. Wood
continuously shaped is provided for
4409. So wood continuously shaped along
any of the edges and faces. And this is
typically moldings go and solid wood
flooring goes. And bamboo products are
often continuously shaped. And that
means basically that it has a continuous
profile throughout its length. So you
can see the 5 products here are all
bamboos. And they're all continuously
shaped. They have a single profile and
the profile extends throughout the
length of the board.
But are these products down here
classifiable in heading 4409? It's
continuously shaped, but does it go on
4409? And the answer is no. Now,
4409.21 is a subheading in 4409 that
provides for continuously shaped board
of bamboo, right? So it kind of sounds
like your modulings go there, right?
But they don't. And why is it that
almost nothing else classifiable here?
The reason why is because 44089 provides
only for are continuous solid wood.
Okay? It can be joined at the ends to
make it longer. You can see the end of
the language, whether or not plain
sanded or end jointed. It can be end
jointed to make the molding longer. But
the language of the heading does not
provide for edge gluing, pieces
side-by-side. If you look at the
explanatory notes, it also specifically
says that goods of 4409 can't be
superimposed either. So you can't have
wood glued on top of each other, right?
And driving the point home even more,
the explanatory notes tell us 4409 are
constructed of timber and timber is
solid wood. Once you start tbleug
things together, you've got a product
that's engineered. And it no longer
fits into the confines of heading 4409.
So all of these products are all
constructed of bamboo. And you can see
they're made of multiple strips glued
together, side-by-side, up and down, and
none of these products is going to be
classified in 4409, because none of them
are solid wood. They're all made of
multiple pieces joined together to form
a larger whole.
The only product I have ever seen
that was correctly classified in 4409.21
was 3-millimeter diameter of bamboo
rods. And chances are you're not going
to see these. You know, these aren't
the greatest -- they're not the largest
bamboo import into the United States by
any stretch. But the thing is, you
remember that bamboo shape, and it's
hollow, and it's got the wall that's
only so thick and there's only so much
you can get out of that tiny cross
section to make a solid product. And if
the thickness of the wall of the bamboo
is 6 millimeters, then getting a
continuously shaped round profile that's
3 millimeters in diameter is possible.
So this is literally the only product
I've ever seen that's correctly
classified there.
So if you have flooring, if you have
moldings, if you have construction
material panels, none of these. None,
none, none are going to be classified in
heading 4409. Regardless of the fact
they're continuously shaped, it doesn't
matter, that part of the language is
only part of what is a requirement for
4409. But if they're made of bamboo and
multiple pieces that are put together to
form a larger whole, then they're not
going to go in 4409.
So where are they going to go?
Probably in 4412 or 4418. Sometimes
4421, depending on the product, but for
the most part, 4412 and 4418. 4412
provides for plywood veneer panels in
similar laminated wood and 4418 for
builders joinery of carpentry of wood.
The important thing that you have to
know in classifying these two headings,
first you have to determine if the
product is classifiable in 4412? Is it
plywood or veneered panel or similar
laminated wood? If it's disqualified by
a note from the chapter, then you move
on to 4418. But you have to disqualify
4412 first.
So why 4418? Why builders' joinery?
That might not seem totally clear.
What we see for bamboo is flooring and
moldings. And flooring and moldings are
recognizable articles used in the
construction of the building. If you
hand me a piece of bamboo flooring or
hand me a t molding or something like
that, I know they go into a building,
right?
Well, the language builders' joinery
is defined in the explanatory note in
the harmonized system in the recognized
notes of a construction building. So
4418 is a proper place to put flooring
and moldings and things that are
incorporated into a building that aren't
classified some place else. So 4418 is
good.
Okay. So let's talk about what 4412
means. Plywood, veneered panels, and
similar laminated wood. Is very, very
important that you understand that these
terms, when we're talking about the
tariff schedule, these terms are
referencing constructions. They're not
referencing specific products. Okay?
So if you go to Home Depot, and you say
I like to buy some plywood, and they
send you over to the aisle with 4x8
sheets of Burch plywood, that's not what
this term means. This term is talking
about a panel, any kind of panel that
has at least 3 layers glued together
with the grain of each layer oriented at
an angle to the adjacent layers. So,
like, one layer is lengthwise grain.
One layer is cross-wise grain. The next
layer is lengthwise grain, and so on.
Right?
So that description does, in fact,
describe your Burch plywood panel. But
thing is it also describes engineered
flooring so, if you're familiar with
engineered flooring, it's not a tariff
term. But it's basically, you know,
flooring of a multilayer plywood
construction. So that word plywood, you
know, that you can see there's a
subheading there, 4412.10 pent 500.
Flooring is going to go into the
classification. Even the plywood you
buy at Home Depot, that's not what that
term means. So second is veneered
panels. And that means veneer of fixed
to a base. And the explanatory notes
tell us that's usually inferior wood.
But it can be other materials too. As
long as the veneer itself gives the
essential character, so if you have a
wood veneer, affixed to a stone plastic
composite base, that's a veneer panel,
because the wood veneer on top is what
gives the product its consumer appeal.
When it's installed, it looks like you
have a wood floor, right?
The stone plastic composite base
enhances the fact it's a wood. And it
can also be high-density fiber board.
It can be plastic. The base importantly
can be wood where the grain runs
parallel to the face ply. Because
remember, plywood, at least 3 layers
where the grains usually alternate
directions, right? But what if all the
grains run in the same direction? It's
not plywood. Right? Then it's a veneer
panel. Okay?
So a veneer affixed to a base and
similarly for laminated W50D, we won't
talk too much about that, but at least
it's 2 outer veneers and CORE lumber.
So talking about blook board or lumber
CORE panels. And laminated wood is
almost a plywood construction. But
those are what those 3 terms means. So
you have first have to ask yourself if
the product you have is described by any
of those definitions.
Okay. So excuse me. A quick note
on bamboo grain. You can see the first
product is a horizontal bamboo panel.
And drawing form, it looks like this up
in the corner. And you can see the
grain all runs in the same direction
here. And this would usually be
lengthwise down the length of the board.
Vertical, same thing. You know, you
can see the little semis in between all
of the strips. And the grain runs
lengthwise. But with strand, it's not a
straight grain. It is kind of wonky.
There's no actual grain to it, because
the grains of all the bamboo in it is
going in all sorts of directions. But
there is a general direction of grain.
So if you had like a strand veneer on
top of engineered flooring, and the wood
veneers is underneath it, if the grains
are alternating directions, you know,
the strand would be lengthwise on top of
those alternating grains.
Okay. So let's quickly talk about
some different kinds of building
material panels. A panel like this is
not dedicated. Right? It doesn't have
any dedicated use for it. It's not
shaped in any way. It's not finished in
any way. But it is, and I'm sorry you
can't totally see this. I can see it,
because I'm trained for this. But this
is a 3 layer panel. The top and bottom
layers are probably 3 to 4-millimeter in
thickness. And the CORE is around
7-centimeter in thickness. And the
grain although natures directions with
this, the top would be lengthwise, the
center layer is across wise grain and
bottom layer is bottom wise grain. So
this has 3 layers. Outer pliez are
veneers. The grain of each layer is
oriented at an angle. And this would
meet the definition of plywood. So
heading 4412 for plywood building
material and similar laminated wood of
bamboo, it's simple. There's
classification for bamboo and everything
else. If you have a similar or
laminated wood, it goes into other. But
this one we can classify it under bamboo
as 4412.500. You can see the lengthwise
grain goes, you know, off to the right
on this panel. On the top layer, excuse
me. The next layer runs cross-wise.
The next layer runs lengthwise. The
next layer runs cross-wise and so on.
It's at least 3 layers. You have
veneer and grain of each veneer is
oriented at angle and this is plywood
also. So 4412.10.500. Now, this one is
really important, because this is like,
remember those pictures of the
horizontal bamboo flooring that I showed
you. Well, this is not flooring. This
is, it doesn't have the joinery for
installation. It's just a dedicated
wood material. But it has that same
horizontal construction. It's got 3
layers, each layer is made of strips
glued side-by-side and basically forming
a veneer, because it's less than 6
millimeters, it's probably 5
millimeters. And in 3 layers. And the
important thing is that all 3 of these
layers, the grain runs the length of the
board. They're all lengthwise. So even
though it's 3 layers, the grains don't
alternate directions. Right? So
they're all parallel.
And because they don't alternate
directions, they can't be plywood.
Right? So the only other option here,
because your top layer constitutes a
veneer, it's less than 6 millimeters in
thickness and it's a sheet of wood, this
is actually a veneered panel. Not an
assemble flooring panel, but it's a
veneer, just non-descript panel. So
like I said, 4412 is for bamboo very
limited. You have a choice of plywood
or other and this would be other,
because veneers panels are in other. So
4,412.10.9000 for that panel. But
flooring is where the most of your
bamboo products are going to fall so,
there are 4 main constructions of bamboo
flooring.
I showed you the horizontal before.
You can see the strips side by side and
in 3 layers. The vertical, you can see
the strips side-by-side. Engineered is
a veneer over a plywood substrate,
usually a wood, like tree-type wood.
And then strand woven, don't get hung
up on the word woven. You can see the
construction in the cross-section and
that's how you're able to identify the
construction for classification
purposes.
Okay. Here's the next funny break.
I had to put this in, because it
cracked me up so bad, I could have died.
[Laughter] two guys standing at the
door looking at the floor, you know,
pandas that have ambushed the room
ripping up the bamboo flooring and
eating it. And this is the precise
reason I didn't want bamboo flooring.
I would be so torn. I would think
it's so awesome that a bunch of pandas
broke into my house. But that's just
me. [Laughter]
Okay. So for flooring, first thing
I want to talk to you about is
multilayer flooring. So multiple
layers, when you look at that
cross-section, okay? So when you have
multilayer flooring, you're going to
have two possible headings where these
things are classified in. One is 4412,
plywood veneer panel or similar or
laminated wood and one is 4418,
builders' joinery. And the difference
in classifying in one versus the other,
because you wouldn't have any idea what
would make them go in one versus the
other, but naturally, by the language
and the tariff. But there is an actual
note in the tariff's schedule.
Additional U.S. note 4 (b) that states
heading 4418 includes multilayer
assembled flooring panels having a face
ply 4 millimeters or more in thickness.
I don't know why this rule is here.
But nonetheless, it is, and it's the
statute. It's law. So if you have a
multilayer assembled flooring panel and
we'll talk about what assembled flooring
panel means in a second and it has a
face ply of less than 4mm, it goes in
4412. If it has 4mM or more, it goes in
4418.
And in a very important note about
that 4mm measurement, classification is
based on a product and its condition as
imported. So we're talking about actual
thickness of that face ply. I see this
all the time. The invoice says 4mm face
ply. But what happened is they put 4mm
veneer on top of the flooring substrate
and they sanded it and finished it. So
it's no longer 4mm in thickness. That
means the product is in 4412. Like this
picture here is exactly one of those
examples. And unfortunately, you can't
really see this so well on my little,
you know, old fashion caliper. But this
face ply only measures 3.35mm thickness.
So it has to go into 4412. So you need
to be aware of your products. And when
I say this happened several times, it's
happened a lot where I've caught the
same problem.
So your product is only classified
in 4418 if it is exactly 4mm or thicker.
Okay? Really important. Okay.
So 4418, like I said is for
recognizable articles used in the
construction of a building. So that's
the easy part. The language of the
heading, you can see there it says
builders' joinery and carpentry of wood,
including cellular wood panels and
assembled flooring panels. Well, it's
kind of redundant to put assembled
flooring panels in there, because the
builders' joinery by definition includes
flooring panels, as the articles used in
the construction of the building. But
be assembled flooring panels are
specifically named. And you do have to
know about this for classification.
What's meant by assembled flooring
panels is a panel made from distinct
pieces or parts of wood that are
deliberately joined and fitted together
in ordered manner to form a whole panel.
Okay? So this can include layers. So
an engineered flooring panel with
multiple wood veneer layers, those are
distinct pieces. Strips, like what
bamboo is made of, those are distinct
pieces. You know, you put them
side-by-side, or in layers. And shapes
to form a pattern, like parkay.
Parquet. Those are distinct pieces
also. So if it's made of layers or
strips, or shapes, specific shapes, then
it is an assembled flooring panel.
Strand bamboo, not assembled. It is
not an assembled flooring panel.
Because if you look at it, you can see
in the cross-section, there are no
distinct shapes. It's just randomly
shredded bamboo expressed into a block.
It's not distinct pieces. It's not
assembled together. It's not ordered.
It's just like mush. Right? So when
you see the term pp assembled flooring
panels, it's going to apply to some
bamboo products, but not all of them.
So strand bamboo is not assembled
flooring panel.
Okay. So here's that picture again.
You can see the horizontal and
individual strips glued together. You
can see the individual layers glued
together. This is assembled. The
vertical, you can see the strips glued
side-by-side. This is assembled. For
engineered, even in this case, where the
top veneer, the bamboo veneer is
strand, the overall construction of the
panel is specific assembled layers. So
we will call this an assembled flooring
panels. When you look at the side of
it, this is isn't the best example to
see it. But you can kind of see like
clumps of bamboo in there. And that's
more of, you know, it's almost a better
description than any kind of solid.
Okay. So when you have engineered
bamboo flooring, meaning a layer of
bamboo veneer over a plywood
construction substrate, these are
usually going to be, you know, at least
5 layers of wood. Sometimes 7, 9, 11.
And the grain of each layer is oriented
at an angle to that of adjacent layers.
This is implied wood construction. And
it's also an assembled flooring panel.
Okay? So if the face ply is less than
4mm in thickness, it stays in 4412 and
it's classified as plywood, because it
meets that definition of plywood.
If it's more than 4mm. So 4mm more
in thickness, then it goes into 4418.
And here's just an actual picture of a
product that I had at my desk where you
can see the bamboo top layer, and the
plywood substrate, where the grains of
wood running in different directions.
This is 4412.10.500 as plywood. This
is another plywood construction panel.
This is your similar laminated wood.
This is block board. And it has a
veneer face, a veneer back and a core of
lumber. And it happens that this one,
the grains alternate directions. So
this actually meets the definition of
plywood. Because this is more specific
than similar or laminated wood. So if
the plywood is less than 4-millimeter,
this meets the definition in 4412. If
it's more than 4mm in thickness, it goes
into 4418. Okay. So here are those
constructions again. Horizontal,
vertical, strand. Okay? Assembled,
assembled, not assembled.
Okay. So let's talk first about
horizontal bamboo flooring. Horizontal
bamboo flooring is assembled, and it's
multilayer. It has 3 layers. 1, 2, 3.
Okay horizontal bamboo flooring is less
than 6mm in thickness. If that top
layer is less than 4mm in thickness,
then you can put it in 4412. But thing
is that with horizontal bamboo flooring,
the top layer is almost always 5
millimeters, like exactly. It's uncanny
how accurate it is.
So if it's 5mm, it's over that 4mm
mark, and it automatically goes into
4418. And remember that note says
assembled, multilayer flooring panels
with a face ply of 4mm or more in
thickness go into 4418. So if this
happens to have a face ply of less than
4mms, which probably doesn't, then it
would go into veneer panels in
4,412.10.9000. But chances are you're
not going to see this. You're not going
to see a horizontal bamboo flooring
panel. What you're going to see is a
4418 bamboo flooring panel. So it's
multilayer. It's assembled. The face
replay is almost 5mM thick. And per
U.S. note, it's 4 (b) and classified in
4418. Just a quick note. Additional
U.S. note 4 (b) was 5 (b) last year and
I don't know why it keeps switching
around. But right now it's 4 (b). So
you can see the language of the
subheading here. There does actually a
breakout for p assembly flooring panel.
So this is why we need to be aware of
that.
So before we finish this up, I'm
going to bring up uni-directional. I
don't know why the WCO landed on this
particular language. But
uni-directional, actually, I have to go
back and check that if it's
international or just domestic. But
uni-directional bamboo means that the
grain of all of the pieces of bamboo in
that product are running the same
direction. Okay? Horizontal bamboo
flooring is made of several pieces,
several strips of wood, side-by-side,
and everywhere layers of it, and every
single piece that grain is running the
length of the panel. It's parallel.
All-in-one direction. That's
uni-directional bamboo. So the center
picture is actually a picture of a piece
of bamboo plywood. You can see the
grain runs one direction in the top
layer. It runs a different direction in
the CORE, and runs a different direction
on the bottom layer. This is not
uni-directional. It's not all running
in the same direction.
And then strand, although this is
not going to come up, but strand would
not be uni-directional, because the
grains are all wonky and goes in
different directions.
Okay. So here's the actual tariff
for horizontal bamboo flooring panels.
So we know they're assembled. We know
they're multilayer. They're of bamboo.
So your choices are for mosaic floors
and other multilayer. Horizontal is not
mosaic. It's just strips side-by-side.
Other is appropriate 679 and it's
multilayer, and there's 3 layers, and
you can see it has face ply more than
6mm or other and we go with other and of
uni-directional bamboo, because the
grain of each strip in that horizontal
panel run in the same direction. So
horizontal bamboo flooring, 4418,
763,000. So vertical flooring. They
recall flooring cannot be classified in
4412. And, hopefully, you already
figured out why this can't be. But I
will tell you anyway. There are some
rulings out there in cross that put
seller bamboo flooring in 4412 and those
are being revoked, because plywood,
veneer panels, and similar laminated
wood all have one thing in common.
They're all multilayer. Right?
Vertical is not multilayer. It's only
one layer. Just one layer of strip
side-by-side. Okay? So plywood has to
have at least 3 layers. Veneer panel is
a veneer affixed to a base that has two
layers. And similar laminated wood is
at least 3 layers. So vertical cannot
go under 4412. It is a recognizable
article used in the construction of a
building so it goes into 4418.
So it is assembled. It's not
multilayer. So we still are classifying
in that subheading for assembled
flooring panels. Okay? So we have
assembled flooring panel of bamboo.
Great. Your choices are for mow sake
floor, other multilayer, other. It's
not multilayer. It's just strips.
Others, but not multilayer and single
layer. So we go down to other.
4,418.37.9000 for vertical bamboo. And
strand, remember it's not assembled,
right? So it can't be classified under
that subheading language for assembled
flooring panel. Right? So remember
here we have assembled flooring panels.
You see that? We can't put strand
there. Okay. So strand basically drops
down to other. And then of bamboo. And
there's a few choices there. We go to
other, and there's a breakout
specifically for wood flooring. So
strand bamboo flooring, 4418.91.1905.
[Rewriting] 9105.
So here's another picture of strand
bamboo flooring so you can see better
that it's not assembled. It's just like
a random, you know, block of strips down
shoved together. So there's no
deliberate assembly there.
Do you know what you get when you
cross a deer and a ghost? Bamboo! Deer
and ghost, bamboo. Okay, I'm not going
to go into deep classification of bamboo
moldings because horizontal ones can
sometimes end up in 4412. But for the
most part, bamboo moldings are going to
be just other builders joinery.
4418.19.9195. Now, moldings have a
decorative aspect to them. They're
functional, but they're not structural.
And so sometimes you will see things
like stair noses. And those are
structural and they're not moldings,
but they're classified in the same way,
just so you know. Generally speaking,
this is what you run into.
4,418.73.6000. Vertical is
4,418.37.9000. Strand is 4418.19.9105.
And New Jerseyered is 4412.10.0500.
And just, I just have to talk about
this, because if you go into the custom
rules online search system and you try
to find a ruling for vertical bamboo
flooring, and you come across one,
maybe it's from 2013 or something like
that and the code that's on it no longer
exists, right? And you're thinking,
okay, I guess the ruling is no longer
valid? Like what happened?
So it is still valid. The tariff
schedule change overtime. It change
internationally. It change
domestically. And we see it at least
once a year, you know, excuse me, the
tariff schedule change domestically
twice a year. And with additional
updates, and international tariff level
chambers every 5 years. The important
thing to know, to realize is that we
don't classify by the codes. The
general rules of interpretation tell you
that classification is based on the
language of the headings and the notes.
And of course the subheadings as well.
But the headings and the notes, you're
classifying by the language, not by the
number. Okay? You find your product's
description, and then you take the
corresponding number and use that as the
classification.
So you're looking around for, you
know, 4418.72.1900 and it's not there
anymore, but the exact same language is
still there. So the ruling, which has
the language, the tariff language in it,
word-for-word, verbatim, that language,
if you go into the tariff schedule today
and that language, you will find the
correct code. Just so you know,
sometimes the language does change, but
look for the same language of that
ruling, and you'll most likely find your
correct classification. So you can see
here in 2016, horizontal bamboo flooring
was 4418.72.9100. Now it's 44 p
18.73.7000 but the language is exactly
the same. Couple of more panel really
quickly. This is a vertical panel.
It's not flooring. It does not have the
joinery to install as flooring, it's not
finished as flooring. It's just a
multi-use material. So it's not
flooring. It's not a recognizable
article used in the construction of the
building. It's basically just a board.
It has no dedicated purpose for it. So
you can't put it in 4418. Because 4418
has to be a recognizable article used in
the construction of the building.
So it automatically just advances to
other articles of wood. 4421. And this
kind of construction, the best
description is edge-glued lumber. So
4421.19.9400 for a vertical just
building panel. Strand is the same
thing. It's not a recognizable article
used in the construction of the
building. It's just a board. And this
construction is not provided for
anywhere else in the tariff's schedule.
So it's other article of wood, just
completely other, other, other. You
know? S 4421.91.9880. And there are
all kinds of random different
constructions of bamboo out there. If
you have one of them, I highly recommend
that you get a binding ruling on them
so you know where they're correctly
classified. I'm happy to put those in
writing, because I like to see more
constructions and more usage. If one of
these happen to be like a post or beam
used in construction of the building, it
could be 4418, it could be 4412, or
4421. So I encourage you to request a
binding ruling for these.
And you made it! You made it all
the way through. So, hopefully, that
clarified things a little bit for you.
Like I said, if not, you have my email
address, and you can always ask me. And
let's move on to the chat box and see if
anybody had questions while we were
going through this.
>> CHRISSI GUTH: So few questions
came in earlier.
>> SANDRA WALIA: One of them give
or two that were input by the same
person. This person says 5mm3 layer was
4412. This contradicts note 4 (b).
>> LAUREL DUVALL: No, that's not
what I said. If it happens to be that
the top layer is less than 4mm, then it
goes into 4412. But generally speaking,
it's almost always 5mm. Which means it
goes into 4418. So sorry that there was
some sort of confusion there. But if
it's 5mm, like you noted with additional
U.S. note 4 (b) it goes into 4418 if it
has a 5mm face ply.
>> SANDRA WALIA: Okay, great.
Another question was can a plywood with
veneer face and backing fall under
44911? 4411?
>> SANDRA WALIA: Yeah. Probably.
>> LAUREL DUVALL: Okay, 4411 don't
exist. But 44 are 911 is printed
matter. 4411. This is for fiber board
products. And once you put a veneer on
top of fiber board it becomes a fiber
panel. The wood layer gives the panel
its essential character. So you're not
going to ever classify a veneer product
in 4411.
>> SANDRA WALIA: Okay. Next
question, do you need a sample for
ruling? If so, how big of a piece?
>> LAUREL DUVALL: I do prefer
samples for rulings. It's just easier
for me to answer my own questions about
it. Sometimes I think when people
request rulings, they don't understand
what we're looking for, because there
are details for their concerns of the
product are not important, but they're
important for classification so, I
prefer a sample.
I don't need more than 6 inches.
>> SANDRA WALIA: Okay.
>> LAUREL DUVALL: So please don't
send me a huge package of flooring. I
don't want it. And I can't lift it
anyways. [Laughter]
>> SANDRA WALIA: Okay. The next
one, what are the 3 types of assembled
flooring panels?
>> LAUREL DUVALL: What are the 3
types of assembled flooring panels?
>> SANDRA WALIA: Yes.
>> LAUREL DUVALL: There are more
than 3 types. There are all sorts of
different kinds of assembled flooring
panels. But for the ones we were
talking about, there was, you know,
there's the horizontal construction that
has the strips side-by-side and in
layers. There's the vertical
construction where it's made of strips
that are side-by-side. There's mosaic
type flooring that it's made of specific
pieces, you know, organized into a
pattern. There's engineered flooring
where it's multiple layers of wood,
those are assembled. So you're looking
for something with distinct pieces that
are intentionally put together to form a
whole.
>> SANDRA WALIA: Okay. Then
there's a few questions to go back to
various slides, just to go back and look
at it. One of them is slide 49 if you
can go back to?
>> LAUREL DUVALL: Okay. Let's do
this. Okay. 49.
>> SANDRA WALIA: Okay. And then
there's a request for 51.
>> LAUREL DUVALL: What was the
question for 49?
>> SANDRA WALIA: It was none. A
lot of them are saying can you go back
to the slide?
>> LAUREL DUVALL: I see what you're
saying. So here's 49. The next one is
you said 51?
>> SANDRA WALIA: Yeah. Let me get
this out of the way.
>> LAUREL DUVALL: Here's 51.
>> SANDRA WALIA: Okay. Again, just
to see it. Next one is 57. Okay. And
then 26.
>> While you're here, is veneer same
as laminated?
>> LAUREL DUVALL: No. Laminated
means bonded. So lamination is bonding.
With the term similar laminated wood,
the explanatory notes tell us exactly
what they mean by that kind of panel.
So laminated is just an additive in
that. But veneer is laminated on to a
substrate. Meaning bonded to a
substrate. Laminating does not mean
veneer. Laminated mean it's pieces are
bonded together. So for example, these
vertical panels on slide 26, there's
laminated together, it's not similar
laminated wood of 4412. So laminated
just means bonded.
>> Just so I understand, face ply
means top layer? Top layer, face ply,
call it what you want to, but face ply
is just my typical language and it
happens to be a tariff term. You will
find I language with a face apply of.
So I refer to the top layer as face ply.
>> And then there's just 4 more
requests to go to the page numbers. One
of them is Page 21.
>> Okay. Page 21. And then 17.
And then 15.
>> Those are the nodes.
>> And slide 11. Lats the last one
I see.
>> And I see one question that came
in. Can small veneered shapes also fall
under 4412 or does it have to be applied
specifically?
>> Small veneered applied shapes?
I'm not sure what that means. But
here's the thing. The term panel does
not have, like, it does not have a
definition that gives size limitations.
So if I had a piece of plywood that was
1 inch square, that's a panel. I mean,
there's nothing that says a panel has to
be a broad expanse. It's just basically
flat and greater expanse than the
thickness. But with plywood, lie wood
is, you know, multilayer. So at least
it's a flat piece that has 3 layers to
it and the grain of each layer ones at
an angle to the adjacent layers. So
small piece of it, 1 by 1 inch. Or 4 by
4 by 8 sheet, that's a panel. So don't
get hung up on the word panel. Stick to
the construction of it. So if you can
see it's something made of layers and
it's at least 3 layers, you know, and
the grains run in different directions.
Then you're looking at a piece of
plywood.
>> So the gentleman from before is
asking, slide uses 3412, this greater
than 5mm contradicts note 4b?
>> Which slide was it?
>> He said slide 35. Uses 4412.
This greater than 5mm contradicts note
4b.
>> No, it doesn't conflict with note
4b because it's not a flooring panel.
Note 4b references assembled multilayer
flooring panels. This is not a flooring
panel. This is a non-descript,
undedicated building material. Okay?
It doesn't have the tongue and Grove.
It doesn't have any joinery. It's not
finished for uses for flooring. It's
simply a building material. So this is
not a recognizable article used in the
construction of a building. Therefore,
it cannot go into 4418. It is a
veneered panel classified at
4,412.10.9000.
>> Okay. He said thank you. I see
just one more slide request for slide
12, if you can go back to that.
>> Okay.
>> Are that's it.
>> Cool.
>> You have note. Virtual checks
for Laurel.
>> LAUREL DUVALL: [Laughter] well,
you know, if I had you guys here, I
would be giving out woodchuck nickels.
But I'm sorry it's virtual. Next time I
see you I'll have wood Chuck nickels for
all your good questions. Thank you so
much. And I think that does bring us to
the end here? I think that's maybe
good? Yes? No? Maybe?
>> CHRISSI GUTH: Yes.
>> LAUREL DUVALL: Great. Great.
Great. If you guys come up with any
questions after we're done here, please
just send me an email, and I will get
back to you. Thanks!
>> CHRISSI GUTH: This concludes our
webinar for this afternoon. This is a
reminder that this webinar will be
posted on the CBP website. Thank you
your day.