>> Good afternoon, everyone. My
name is Lynn banks with the Office of
Trade relations. Today's Webinar is
heading 6212 body-supporting garments
and beyond. And it's part of the
education commodity specific 2023
webinar series. And has an anticipated
duration of 90 minutes. We have a few
housekeeping items. We ask that
everyone be kept on mute during the
presentation so we can make clear of any
background noise. If you have any
questions or comments, we invite you to
type them into the chat box at any time
during the presentation. We will answer
as many questions as we can at the end
of the presentation. And the Continuing
Education credit code will be placed in
the chat box during the presentation.
Today's presenter is National Import
Specialist, Karen Sikorski. Ms. Karen
Sikorski, over to you.
>> KAREN SIKORSKI: Good afternoon,
everyone. I decided to come on camera
and say hello to everybody, because it's
so much easier to relate to people when
you can see them. Unfortunately, I
won't be able to be on camera for the
entire seminar, and that's only because
I have couple of different set ups here,
and I can't look directly at the camera.
So I thank you for joining us. And
we'll get started.
Okay, I have couple of slides here
that I'm going to let you read at your
leisure. First up with is our mission
for customs and our Office of Trade.
The next one is our disclaimer which
basically is telling you this webinar is
for general information purposes only.
It's educational. We're providing
guidance. The information here that's
related can't be considered to be -- you
can't rely on it and consider it
reasonable care. There's more research
that needs to be done and just be aware
this is for educational purposes and
don't hold me feet to the fire. Also
another disclaimer regarding our images.
Everything that we've got here is
either public domain, or we have
obtained the appropriate Copyright
licenses. And again, everything is here
just for educational purposes.
We always have to mention binding
rulings. Here's the links for that
where you can request binding rules for
the National Import Specialist. We can
cover classification origin, free trade
agreement and marketing. And the
easiest way is to go to c bp.gov and
input the words electric Nick ruling.
We ask that you send samples for apparel
and pictures are always helpful as well.
Our basic outline today is pretty
simple, although, we'll get into some
complicated stuff. We're just going to
touch on some of the bakes of
classification for heading 6212, cover
some terms in definition., especially
the word port. We're going to talk
about the body support being the
paramount function or primarily purpose
for the garment as established by
headquarters ruling and a court case and
we're going to focus the webinar
primarily on brassieres, sports bras,
bralettes, support tanks and support cam
sole style garments and case studies for
ambiguous garments. Heading 2612 itself
covers brassieres, girdles, corsets,
suspenders, garters and similar articles
and parts thrf, whether or not knitted
or crocheted. We have a traditional
bra. A corset, which is going to
compress the waist. A corset, which is
British term for suspender and garter
belt to hold up stockings. We talk
about the terms of the heading of the
HTS. We basically mean the words of the
HTS.
And when we say HTS, it's just an
abbreviation for the Harmonized Tariff
Schedule of the United States, which we
also simply refer to as the tariff.
This slide and the next are the
explanatory notes for heading 2612 in
their entirety. InterAlia is a word and
it means among other things. So intran
tore notes are going to cover the terms
of the heading which we previously just
saw. And then these explanatory notes
add some words like panty girdle,
corset, et cetera. So you always want
to look at both, terms of the heading
and explanatory notes.
When people talk about my commodity
line, they refer to some of the items
that I handle as body-supporting
garments and I thought to myself, where
does that come from? It's not in the
tariff. Well, the terminology
"body-supporting" actually comes from
the explanatory notes, which say the
heading covers articles of a kind
designed for wear as body-supporting
garments or supports for certain other
articles of apparel. The word "support"
actually means like very briefly to bear
the weight of. The article in this
heading may be made of any textile
material including knitted or crocheted
fabrics. And Chapter 62 note 1 also
drives that point home, even though
Chapter 62 is limited to articles of
apparel and clothing, accessories not
knitted. And this is how bras fit into
heading 6212.
So let's get right into it. Here's
some additional guidance from a few
headquarters ruling regarding
body-supporting garments. The article
should be supported throughout HQ963631.
The examine particulars to heading 6212
are United by the fact that they support
apparel or other items like garters or
forms of garments like a bra, and
generally worn underneath other
garments. An example would be a
maternity belt we see here. That's
according to headquarters ruling can
HQ963631. And I put in here postectomy
compression, and this would go into
heading 6212 as well. This is something
recommended by a surgeon after a
mastectomy, which is breast cancer
surgery to remove one or both breasts.
Vest such as this would offer
compression, tight fit or good amount of
spandex, very wide elasticized bands
among other features.
And this garment would be designed
to enhance healing for disturbed tissue
layers after surgery and could aid in
easing swelling, pain and discomfort.
There are some more elucidating
definition for the word support. To
bare up or hold up. A load mass,
structure, part, service as a foundation
for. To sustain or withstand weight,
pressure, or strain, without giving way,
to serve as a prop for. HQ963631 tell
us in finding the support, it's a means
to bare the weight of especially from
below to hold in position, to prevent
from falling, sinking, or slipping. H
this must be the primary function as
established by HQ950741.
The word are principle actually
means principle, basic, fundamental. So
for the past 30 years or more, CBP has
been dealing with body support as a
primarily support of any garment that's
classified in heading 6212. In this
case here, the Victoria's Secret Direct
case, the Court told us that the items
classified in heading 6212 have as
either their essential characteristic
and purpose either of support of a part
of the body or support of a garment.
And this is actually a picture of the
court of international trade building
in New York, New York.
So before we move on to some more of
this information, let's take just a few
minutes and maybe you could tell me in
the chat box how you happen to be
connected to apparel imports. You know,
why are you here? Who do you work for?
Are you an import specials with U.S.
customs? Or are you from the trade and
you're working, you know, with bras or
it things like that. If you're there, I
think I can see the chat box. Yes,
we've got some import special lists.
Some entry specialists. Some brokers.
Tariff engineers. Broker. Anybody want
to mention what company they're from?
Quality control. Trade compliance.
Talbot. Somebody taking the brokerage
exam. Customer compliance and other
broker. Logistics. Macy's. Wonderful.
Thank you. I'm so glad we have such a
variety of people here.
It's really good to know that we're
reaching everybody. Somebody is an Uber
driver. Awesome. Okay. Thanks, I
guess we have to move on and go back to
work. But it's great to know you a
little bit. And I'll keep watching
outreach the corner of my eye. So in
this slide here, what we've got is an
example from the Victoria's Secret case.
This is just a picture I came up. It's
not actually part of the case. But
during that Victoria's Secret case,
garments were ruled to be of a dual
purpose, both coverage and support. The
degree of coverage was determined to be
more than that provided by a brassiere.
The Court found that support is the
paramount function of 6212. And that
the premise of the function is not
overwritten by additional outerwear
coverage function so significant as to
dominate or roughly be the same
importance of the support function.
This is kind of a key aspect to the
case.
A shelf cam sole is a cam sole with
a shelf bra. This is an extra piece of
fabric with elastic under wand built
into the garment that provides light
support to the breast. And I showed you
a picture here.
So some of the definitions we're
going to talk about today in detail I
have to do about brassieres and then
we're going to talk a little bit about
tank styles, camisoles, and abbreviated
upper body garments and tops. And best
place to go for customs definition for
these terms is the apparel terminology
informed compliance publication. And
that's what we'll cover the bras in more
detail in a moment. But we're going to
talk about the other ones here in a
little bit, just so you know these
definitions are here. So report to
compliance publications, I've included
the definitions for other types of
garments from the ICP, because they
become helpful when we start to talk
about garments that cross the line
between bras and upper body garments
worn as outerwear. These definitions
can help us understand the differences
between items that serve as bras and
those that are simply tops.
So here they talk about in the ICP
about tank styles and similar upper body
garments. And they end up being in 6211
here according to the ICP due to lack of
coverage. And we can translate this to
heading 6114 as well where we put these
garments if they were knit. So this
group encompasses 3 types of garments.
Sleeve-less tank styles, cam stoles, and
abbreviated upper body garments.
Sleeve-less tank styles are providing
limit the shoulder coverage and how this
can have a U neck, V neck, or scooped
neck, et cetera. Camisoles are garments
that provide limited shoulder coverage.
They normally have spaghetti style type
or ribbon type straps, and they're cut
straight across from the top edge, from
the side seam to side seam, either in
the front or back or both. And then we
have upper abbreviated upper body
garments which lack coverage either at
the shoulder, arm hole, or waist, and
this would include things like bandeaus,
Bouse yeahs, and hall through and tube
tops and I just discovered this in the
informed compliance publication and
found it had real application to my line
when I'm trying to decide if something
is going to be a support garment or bra
in 6212 or it's not going to in line,
and it has to go to heading 6114, or
heading 6211.
This is another one of those
definitions from the ICP where they talk
about tops and heading 6114, and they
say which is the knit provision and they
say tops generally have limited coverage
of the neck and shoulder area, and/or do
not reach the waist. And these terms
are sometimes used to describe garments
such as halter tops, tube tops, or cam
SOLs, and I provided an example of each
one here. Halter top, tube tops, and
camisole. And word about camisoles,
knit camisole garment can be ambiguous
because they can be worn for a number of
different reasons. They can be
classified in heading 6114, but they
also can be mine if they're under an
undershirt or turn out to be a support
style camisole and heading 6212.
So for brassieres, in 6212, these
are garments that are worn to mold and
or support the breast. They typically
consists of two cups held in place with
shoulder straps and elastic in center
back. Long-line brassieres extend
toward the waist and typically have
vertical stays or boning. Sports bras
usually feature wider shoulder straps,
two-ply frawnt panel, mesh fabric, and
elasticized bottom bands.
In headquarters ruling 9HQ591264,
T-back sports bras were ruled as customs
to qualify as cups, hook and eye
closure, under wire stays, and it was
determined that so long as the articles
were treated as foundation wear in the
industry, and possessed the support
features, they weren't precluded from
classification in heading 6212. Sports
bras are treated as foundation rather
than outerwear. They're designed to
movement and exercise and can be quite
sturdy de. It will sometimes be
differentiated as offering support for
activities that are low impact, such as
this one, which could be used for
something like yoga. Or medium impact,
say you would use it to go hiking. Or
high impact, which would be something
like a bra which you would use for
returning. This particular one has
extra details in here, some extra mesh,
some molded cups, some pretty firm
straps. Some very adjustable bra and
hook eye closure in the back. What is
the foundation wear? Well, foundation
wear is any garment that support or
controls the woman's figure. Sometimes
it's associated with CORE let's or
corsets. But this also covers garments
such as girdles, panty girdles and
brassieres. Christian Dior said without
foundation, there can be no fashion.
Properly fitted fashion garments are
the building blocks that make clothes
look their best, especially for women.
Here we have the bullet bra, but what's
the point?
A bra does not have to be worn as a
under garment only, it need only possess
certain requisite body-supporting
functions. According to headquarters
ruling 950685, some typical features
include underwear, adjustable shoulder
straps, stays, adjustable hook and eye
closures, traditional bra sizing,
support fabric. I wanted to say little
bit about the word "stays." Because
that can be another term for the word
boning. Boning is a sewing technique
that actually fixes bones into a seam.
Today, it's made of plastic or metal in
and provide support and they can give
the garment special sort of structure.
They can stabilize and hold the fabric
together and actually create seller
structure. Designers use bra bones to
help maintain the shape of a bra.
Headquarters ruling 951264 tells us the
customs does not support the
body-supporting garments. Must have
cups, heat-molded or otherwise
classified as brassiere, long as
articles are treated as foundation wear
in the industry and requisite support
features are present. Traditional bras
seem to all have cup, but something like
this which is a low impact sports bra
that does not.
For brassieres, first thing we need
to determine is whether the bra has
lace, net, or embroidery. Most bras we
see do not actually contain lace, net,
or embroidery for tariff purposes.
Whether there's a duty difference or
not, it's always in your best interest
to classify accurately as possible.
Actually, our division director, Steve
Mac said the other day that it's always
better to do things right the first time
and, I wholeheartedly agree, because do
what you feel in your heart to be right.
For you will be criticized anyway
according to Eleanor Roosevelt. The
bras that contain lace, net, embroidery,
I provided subheading of there, the
specific cup subheading. You would want
to determine what containing means and
containing actually means a significant
amount for the tariff. The lace, net,
or embroidery for the bras in this
section should be featured on the main
body of the garment, not solely used as
trim or edging. And I had some
assistance coming up with some of these
definitions for lace, net, or embroid
refrom my team. And I can tell you that
lace, true lace is ornamental or open
fabric formed by intertwisting of
thread. True lace is neither woven or
knitted. For net, this is open fabric
formed by weaving, knotting, or twisting
of yarn or thread to form a meshwork.
Net is not knit. Embroidery is obtained
by working with embroidery threads on
pre-existing ground of fabric in order
to produce an ornamental effect on that
ground.
So for these bras that are in the
section where they're candidating net,
lace, or embroidery, many places have
that but they're usually lace-like or
net-like knit fabrics where you can see
the interlinking loops, therefore, most
bras are going to fall into the "other"
category which is 6212.10.90. You can
see the explanatory notes for more
specific information on lace, net, or
embroidery.
Like I said before, true lace is an
open work fap brick. It can be made by
hand with bobbins and pins, Needles,
hooks, or by machinery. The machinery
for making lace came into being in the
very early 1800s in Nottingham England.
Yes, Robin Hood territory. Machines
were made to make garments of handmade
lace. 1813, John levers improved the
machine and levers lace became the
well-known use. And cuss testimonies
recognize as true lace. Leavers. So
you might look at both sets of bra and
say they're lace. Well, here on the
left retails for $550 and actually made
with Leavers Lace. And is this is one
of the bras that's going to be showing
as being made with lace. But on the
right-hand side here, we have some bra
let's that have lace-like fascia for $19
for 5 of them and $3.80 per unit. So
that's a good example of what is
lace-like fabric and not a true lace.
These are some bras with nets. This
is a meshwork originally made by hand,
net is also made by machine with varying
size and fineness. That's occurring in
many forms to fine dress nets to fish
nets of great variety. You see the net
here is featured on the main body of the
bra. Just what we need to be classified
as a net section we talked about smght.
Embroidery is obtained working with
threads on a pre-existing ground in
order to produce an ornamental effect on
that net ground. This definition is
from the explanatory notes. Here, what
we have is something that was stated to
be a tool fabric under wire cup bra
embroideried with colorful fine Apple's.
Embroidery must be significant in this
section which can be important or
noteworthy. So I would consider this
bra with embroidery, because the
pineapples are so significant. So we're
about halfway through this big long
presentation. And if you would like to
take just a moment to get up and do a
halfway stretch, you have permission to
do so. I'm going to stand up and move
around a little bit. Maybe get a sip of
water. I think it's hard to concentrate
on something like this for a full hour.
So if you want to step away for a
minute, please feel free. It's
important to do that, to take your eyes
away from the screen, and maybe your
ears away from my voice for a moment.
You can let me know if you want to, if
you don't, you can just continue to
stretch. You can let me know if you're
willing to take just a few minutes out
of this presentation where we constantly
hammer away at classification to explore
little bit of history.
I started to do some research some
of this topic, and I probably got little
more into it than I needed to. But I
think it's sometimes helpful because it
makes you understand where some of these
things come from, like we talk about
bones in a bra. They actually used
bones. It's fascinating. So please,
everyone is begging for more history
because they just don't want to look at
the tariff, the book that makes you go
blind. That's what it's exactly
designed. I didn't need glasses most of
my adult life until I started working
for customs, and then sure enough,
steering at those little figures all the
time, I had to get glasses. So, thank
you for your patience, and thank you for
your willingness to entertain me with
the history. So we can move on. Bras
actually include a great diversity of
styles and methods of construction. So
to understand their purpose, we're going
to do just a little primer on the
history of the bra. There is evidence
women have worn various garments since
ancient times to cover or support the
breast. This actually is a mosaic
created in Sisley in the 4th century AD,
colloquially known as the bikini girls.
You can see our girl on the left here
using the little dumb bell similar to
what we use today. So the more things
change, the more they stay the same.
The FEMA bust was encased in the corsets
from the western world to 16th and early
20th Century. What formed as a bodice
that pushed the body upward made of
under garment made of whale bone and
steel that encircled the ribs and
compressed the natural waist. Corsets
evolved over the use and helped shaped
the body into distinctive silhouettes as
dictated by the fashions of the time.
Women everywhere were relieved when
corsets were fashion from the early
1900s. When corsets became
unfashionable, brassieres and padding
helped to project display and emphasize
the bust. In 1893, New Yorker Marie to
you sick was granted a patent for breast
supporter as they described as
modification of the corset. Which was
similar to a modern-day push-up bra and
plate made of metal or other stuff
material fit against the torso of the
breast. It was covered with fabric and
had a pocket for each breast. Women
everywhere marched on with the
discomfort until the first modern bra
was invented by Mary Phelps Jacob, who
did not like bones sticking out from
dawning a sheer evening gown for a
debutante ball. She used this
alternative using two handkerchief plus
some ribbon. She patented the garment
in 1914, thereby freeing women from the
tyranny of corsets forever according to
Vanity Fair magazine. Mary sold the
bras to friends for $1. And then found
a factory in Boston staffed by two
women. After making a few hundred bras
and receiving some orders from the
Department stores, she was persuaded by
her husband to clothes the company. She
sold the patent to Warner Bros. corset
company for $1,500. In the next 30
years, Warner Bros. made more than $15
million from the design as they began
producing the garment.
While we could feel rather sorry for
Mary who lost out on the fortune to be
made on her bras, she actually led a
fascinating life despite this. She
divorced her upper-class husband in 1932
for the more Roguer hear Crossley.
Harry confessed his love for her and
they took off to join ex-pats in Europe
where she changed her name to Coress
Crosby. And she's living life here with
her canopy and her umbrella.
It was there in Europe that Caresse
who embodied woman who has it all who
had her picture painted than none other
than Salvador Dali. She became a
well-known New Yorker. And made
lifelong friends with Dali. She and
Harry founded a publishing company that
was actually responsible for publishing
the early works of authors who would
later become such famous luminaries as
earnest Hemingway, aniece and Charles
Pokowsky and she supported antiwar
organization. Fascinating story. Back
to bras.
So there are various different types
of bras. And I'll mention a few. The
T-shirt, padded, balance come net, back
less, strapless, push up, wireless,
plunge, racer back, under wire,
convertible, cupless, full coverage,
front, closure, bandeau,, et cetera.
And these are some pictures to give you
an idea what the different types of bras
are. If you can see, virtually all of
them here have straps except for the
bandeau. This particular plunge one
doesn't, but sometimes they do. And the
strapless one clearly is without straps.
The T-shirt bra is actually a very
common popular bra, because the molded
cups provide modest tea and can be
practically invisible when wearing
lightweight t-shirts. They can include
underwear like this one or be wire-free.
Maternity bras are souped-up versions
of regular bras. They're designed to
support the body during pregnancy. They
may include wider straps, softer fabric,
extra hooks, or other features that can
accommodate an expanding bust or rib
cage. A mastectomy bras has special
features to hold silicone bust forms.
Nursing bras have features such as a
clasp where the cup meets the strap that
make it easier to nurse a baby, or to
get access to breast milk for pumping.
These are some -- well, the bralette,
I'm going to give you some definitions
here. It is known as a soft bra with no
wires, and often thin removable pad with
unstructured bra, unpadded and wire
free. And these do include straps and
these are common definitions for
bralette. CBP does not have a
definition for the bralette. This is
bra without standard bra components.
They generally provide at least light
suggest and are being embraced because
of their comfort. Due to their
unstructured nature, bralettes follow
the contours of a woman's bust in a more
natural way. Their sizing is different
from traditional bras, and they're
small, medium, large instead of 32A, 34B
and so on. These are becoming so
popular that bra companies that failed
to embrace the trend have suffered
significant decline in sales revenue.
When I first started working with them,
I was really quite confused, because I
didn't think they offered much support
and did they really provide the support
needed to be in heading 6212, but they
do in their own little way.
What is a bralette exactly? Well,
it can be many things. It can be a
dainty easygoing alternative to a
standard bra that functions as a bra.
But many cases can be revealed to the
public view a little bit, or even a lot.
Like you have here. This style used to
be worn by mainly teenagers and smaller
busted women. But now women of all ages
are embracing them somehow. We popped
ahead.
Even women larger chested women are
wearing them. Sometimes for them, they
might have some additional features,
like cups, or closures, or more fabric.
It seems bra let's are bigger on style
than support, but times are changing,
and women are not interested in
suffering for comfort these days. Maybe
they're not as concerned. Their main
purpose must be support if they're
classified in 6212. But they can, in
addition add style to an outfit. The
word duron is meaning strip and garment
apprising of strip cloth. Today the
term frequently refers to a garment that
wraps around the women's bust, similar
to a tube top but narrower. It's actual
pull on style, sleeve-less, and off the
shoulder. Both of these bras here were
being advertised by an online bra
retailer who does not sell regular
clothing. There are only two ruling in
cross that cover bandeau bra. That is
N075316 and H88358. And I found most
bandeau bras on the market today include
support and shaping features such as
removable or invisible straps, cups,
heading, knit and ruching, and side
boning, stays, under wire, side gather,
tightly knit fabric, wider bottom bands.
At first glance, these don't appear
to offer that much support because you
don't have the straps, but there are
features here that are making these
items supportive. And like I said, this
one has some boning. It's got some Sony
in elastic edges. It's lined. It's got
silicone grippers. This particular one
has very wide covered elastic bands at
the top and bottom. Knit in review
shaking [Rewriting] ruching. And this
pointer is driving me crazy here.
Let me see if I can calm this down.
I don't know what's going on. My mouse
is going crazy. So here, the garments
pictured appear to be rather ambiguous.
These are all bandeaus.
Classification, each one of these
garments would have to be evaluated on
all of the factors presented. Ban doze
are kind of like camisole in a sense
they can be worn in several different
ways and we're going to touch on how to
classify ambiguous items in a moment.
But here's our pointer again. I just
pulled all of these 3 pictures off the
Internet for fun. This one was actually
called the bandeau bra, but it's being
shown with shorts, which means she's
wearing it out in public. Looks like
it's a little bit wider than the bandeau
bra we had on the previous slide. But
we don't know what the exact features
are. This one here looks more like the
bandeau bra we had on the previous slide
and it's quite narrow. And she's
clearly wearing it in place of a bra.
But she's also wearing it's on the
street as a top with a modified cardigan
and pants. I have no idea how this was
designed, marketed, or sold, but I
thought it was fascinating. And then we
have the tube top. And it is born as
outerwear with a pair of pants. But at
first glance, all three of these
garments seem to have a lot of
similarities, don't they? I think as we
finish up bras, I'll say a word about
built in bras. And this is my wording
here. I have HQ950658 for further
reading, but built in bras designed as
outerwear that also provides body
support such as a yoga top, a swimsuit,
and a dress with built in bras are not
bras. They're outerwear. And these are
a little more straightforward than some
of the other garments that may be a
little more abbreviated. But this
drives home the concept that just
because it has a bra built into it
doesn't mean it is a bra. We're heading
into the homestretch of this
presentation here and I want to do take
a moment to tell you that I appreciate
you being here. And I appreciate you
taking the time out of your day to spend
some time on your own education. It's
hard to do that because we're busy all
the time and it's hard to pay attention
to one topic for any length of time.
But I'm proud of you for being here.
And I'm proud that you are taking the
time to dive into this topic with me.
So thousand that we finished bras,
we're going to tackle something a little
bit more difficult. And we might just
go on little bit more than an hour. I
also wanted to, you know, tackle some of
the questions we got about these items
in the webinar. So if it's not a bra,
but it's an upper body support garment,
where would you classify it? So the
bras are 6212.10. Clearly, we're not
going to make it a girdle or corset.
It's not a bra but it's not an upper
body support garment. Could it be
6212.90? Well, here, this is a good
example of what we would call a shape
wear tank that could be classified as a
body supporting garment in subheading
6212.90. It's advertised as being firm
control and tightly knit fabric, great
deal of spandex, and you can see how it
really shapes the woman's mid-section.
This was designed, marketed, and sold
and used as a support garment only. It
was not shown to display with underwear.
It was not offered by a retailer that
sells clothing. It had a lot of
features that, you know, were convincing
to make it a support garment in 6212.90.
However, there are many garments
that are, indeed, ambiguous, which means
capable of being understood in two ways
or more. This is a case study that I
think we kind of already covered with
object import specialist but I wanted to
share with the trade. This is an
ambiguous tank style knit garment and we
had to decide if it was an underwear
singlet or support tank and when I say
singlet, I'm using the terminology from
the tariff. But what I really mean is
woman's undershirt. And you see here
there's a huge difference in duty. If
it's undershirt, it would be 32% duty.
If it's a support tank, under 6212.90,
you have 6.6% duty. So 6212 can be an
enticing heading to want to use
classified, because the duty rates are
little bit lower. But we have to be
strict about what goes there. So let's
see what happened with this garment.
This was designed as knit shape wear
underwear tank. It's shape wear and
underwear tank. Which one is it? I
don't know, maybe it's both. This one
had slightly different fiber content for
the middle section and bust and the
bottom, and some elasticized neckline,
arm opening, and middle head change in
the pattern. It was seamless,
close-fitting and designed to fit slim
to lower torso. Came in a variety of
color. This is typical under wear color
and it was also being sold in the
intimates department.
We got a sample at this stage, but
no further documentation. And we really
didn't get any information about how it
was designed, marketed, and sold. We
didn't have any hand tags, no packaging,
or any advertising at this point. We
did get some of that information. It
was interesting, but what we really
fountain, we tried the garment on a live
model and found the garment was not
tight-fitting nor substantially
supporting in any way. Although it was
close-fitting and clung to the body in
the manner of an undershirt. We didn't
find shaping or support for mid-area,
and the garment really had no bust
support at all. In addition, we found a
companion piece which was a short style
under pant with the same fabric and
fiber content and I think the question
on that one, too, was it a girdle? But
like the undershirt, neither garment
were found to be 6212, because they
weren't sufficiently supportive.
But it wasn't easy to come to this
conclusion. We had to look at all the
features of the garments, all of the
documentation, and, you know, make a
fair judgment call. How do we classify
ambiguous garments? I'm going to give
you some tips. You want to look at the
garment itself. Determine what the
physical features of the garment are.
Write them down. Are those features
practical? Does the fabric, design and
styling of the construction of the
garment make it suitable for the
intended purpose? Does the garment have
companion pieces? How is the garment
designed, marketed, sold, and used?
Actually look at the marketing, the
advertising, professional and sales
environment information, catalogs,
Internet. Here's another example.
6109, 6114, 6212, it could be any of the
3. Consider which department the
garment is sold in. Look at the actual
packaging, the hand tags, the displays,
the nature of the importer's business,
what kind of retailer is the importer?
Are they an established I know the
minute apparel company? Do they sell
outerwear? And this was off Amazon, it
was actually under section for lingerie
and bra and sports bra. And it was
designed in typical fashion as couple of
different things. Sports bra, removable
padded yoga tank top, sleeve-less
fitness work out running crop top.
Well, we don't have any details,
because I don't have it in front of me.
But I would have to tell you that
there's too much body conversation for
this to be a bra in 6212. It's more
along the lines of outerwear with a
built-in bra. I suggest referring it to
the National Import Specialist that
handles. I think 6114, because it
doesn't reach to the taste, it would be
considered a top. Because the
Victoria's Secret court case tell us if
the degree of coverage is more than that
provided by a brassiere, as the term is
ordinarily used, and the coverage is
sufficient that the garment is designed
to be worn in public without layers in
the garment, just because an item may be
called a sports bra does not mean it is
one for custom's purposes.
Here is a listing of what the
Carborundum factors are according to the
Court case. And it's basically the
legal basis for what we just discussed
previously. If you need additional
information, you know, for ambiguous
garment, you will need additional
information beyond an invoice
description for these ambiguous
garments. There are various rulings
that cite the Carborundum Factors. I
have a few in my notes. But it's
actually easier for you just to go into
cross if type in Carborundum factors.
Those rulings will come up. And you
can see kind of like when you need to
apply them or how they have been applied
in the past.
So I always like to end on a
positive note or confusing note. So
let's do this one here. There are so
many perplexing garments these days
being worn in various ways.
Headquarters ruling 954488 way back in
1993 classified a decorated brassiere.
It said that although serving as a body
support garment, a brassiere may be worn
as outerwear. And that it's now
acceptable to let brassieres that have
been embellished show under outer wear
or even be worn by themselves. Well,
this picture is not related to that
headquarters ruling. This is something
I came up with to talk about. But let's
talk about this for a moment and ask
ourselves some questions. Is this item
treated as foundational wear in the
industry? Was it made in a bra factory?
Does it have bra support features such
as cups, under wire? Or does it have
strings in the back on the neck?
Does it support its primary purpose?
Is the outer wear aspect equally
competing to the body support function?
And that's from the case. Is the outer
way aspect equally competing with the
body wear function? I know, the ads are
great. I actually had to put this
picture up, because she looks so fab
less with 6 pack abs and she can wear
whatever she wants. Can we call this
item outerwear? Does it provide enough
coverage? I don't know. Is this a bra
in 6212? Is it a knit top in 6114? Is
it a swim top at 6112? And here's the
real question. Do you wear this to work
or is it just for Coachella? I don't
know.
I love to see what you all say when
I look at, I'll get a transcript of your
comments so, someone is going to wear it
to work. [Laughter] that's a good one.
So if you find yourself struggling with
classifying garments like the last one,
get a hold of these court cases and read
them, really. Read them in bits if you
have to. They really help explain some
of the concepts behind body-supporting
garments versus tops.
I can't read them all at once, but
every time I do go back and I read
sections, it's really helpful. If you
can't find these online, or get them,
you know, easily, just send me or my
associate Lisa a message, and we will
get a copy of those court cases to you
via email. This is our contact
information. Email is always the best,
because if I'm not in, Lisa can get back
to you. And I do want to take a moment
to thank my team that helped with this
webinar in every way, Sandra Walia,
Lynne banks, Fung King Kong. And Amy.
You can raise your hand for microphone
access and I'll try to turn it on. Or
you can type it in the chat box.
Thank you for your applause. Thank
you.
>> So Karen you had a few questions
that came up. We won't unmute people
with the raised hand function but they
can type in the chat box. Couple of
easier questions, please clarify
specifics about work out bra. Some are
being used as outer wear. Will they be
6114 even if it has support and pads? I
think you touched on this in some of the
later slides.
>> KAREN SIKORSKI: I didn't quite
catch the whole question. Do you think
you can repeat it a little bit more
slowly?
>> Sure. Please clarify specifics
about work out bra. Some are being used
as outerwear. Will they be 6114 even if
it has support and pads?
>> KAREN SIKORSKI: You know,
there's so many different variations of
work out bras. I am aware of what's out
there on the market. And it's crazy.
And women are wearing what we would, in
the past, be called sports bra you wear
a tank top over. Now they're wearing
them as the top, because a lot of women
wear a lot of high waisted pants. And I
actually had 3 or 4 of them come from
the importers. And 3 of them turned out
to be tops and one of them turned out to
be a bra. It just depends. That's why
I said when they're ambiguous like this,
you have to look at the actual physical
feature and then you have to look at the
marketing and practicality, et cetera.
There is some subjectivity there and
I'm perfectly aware of this. And I look
at things online all the time, and I
think to myself, oh my, how would I
classify that? But you have to dig
deep. And like I said, if you have a
question, you can always send it in for
binding ruling. We have 30-day turn
around. I hope that helps.
>> Another convention. How does
athletic compression apparel fit into
6212 for men or women? Can short or
long sheaf tops or bottoms be included?
>> KAREN SIKORSKI: Yes, they can.
I did not cover that in the webinar, but
we have covered it a bit in the past.
There are shirts that have been
determined to be designed for
compression purposes. And they have
special features built in. And
something like for example, a posture
shirt which I didn't know existed. It
has certain specialized features to help
support posture. And you wouldn't wear
it as a typical outerwear type of thing.
It's got unique features that make it
support its primary purpose. So you
can take a look and see what's across
there by putting in the terminology
compression wear, outerwear. But
there's a swim shirt we did. I didn't
do it, but someone else did. And I
think there were some shirts with some,
maybe not weights, but, yeah, maybe
there were weights in there. There have
been some articles for athletic wear
that have been classified as compression
wear under very specific circumstances.
>> Okay. Another convention. Are
men's JFO-OCC straps/classified
supporters classified under 6212?
>> KAREN SIKORSKI: Yes, they are.
I'm pretty sure that the word JFO-OCC
strap was even mentioned in the
explanatory notes if I'm correct.
>> Okay, great. Is there a link we
can follow to be 6114 or bra or rib
cage? Or maybe this is not a feature we
can follow?
>> KAREN SIKORSKI: Oh, is there a
length we can follow (reading chat) it's
one of the things we can follow, because
remember, we talked about bras being
long-line bras that come further down on
the body. So you look at -- those are
traditional. Those long-line bras. Now
they're making long-line sports bras.
And then the other thing is, too, there
are no hard-and-fast rules, I guess, is
kind of what you're asking. You can
always measure and compare. And
sometimes our rulings actually will give
you measurements like for example, when
I was looking at bandeau bras, I noticed
that the bandeau bras had measurements
of the length of the bandeaus, which is
really good to know, because the one I
was looking at was very similar to the
bandeau bras that custom has classified
in the past, and they were about 5
inches long. But, no, there is no
hard-and-fast rules. Sorry.
>> Okay. Next question you might
see it too. It says I believe this was
mentioned but in your opinion, would you
say fashion trends make classifying more
complicated? Or would it be easier
because of an item's true intention?
>> KAREN SIKORSKI: I think it's a
double question, really. Would fashion
trends making classification more
complicated? Of course it does. That's
the thing. Fashion is always changing.
But what we have to remember for
classification purposes is that we have
to think of it in terms of the tariff
and not necessarily fashion. The two
can intersect, but for custom's
purposes, like for example, we talked
about lace earlier, and you know, a lot
of times people in the industry will
say, oh, this is lace. Well, for
custom's purposes, it's not. You know?
S and because the tariff defines things,
and we have like ruling history and
court cases that define things, we
can't, yeah, fashion definitely makes
classification complicated.
But items' intention and usage are
important as well. If something is
claimed to be used as a bra, but it has
virtually no support, is it really a
bra? You know? And when the Court
tells us that support is the paramount
function of heading 6212, like that
undershirt we discussed earlier, you
know, maybe somebody was planning to
wear that as a support tank. But we
found that it didn't have enough -- its
true purpose was not as a support tank.
We had to make a judgment call that it
was not supportive enough to be a
support tank. It's complicated. Trust
me, I understand. (Chuckles softly).
>> Another question. Are there any
helpful rulings for guidance when
deciding a bra let or bra is 6212 or top
of 6114?
>> KAREN SIKORSKI: You know, I had
to do a lot of education for myself on
bralettes when I started looking at
them. I cannot recall off the top of my
head if we actually used the word
"bralette" or any of my predecessors or
headquarters attorney used the word
bralette or not. But you can always
type that word into the search bar and
see if anything comes up. I can't
recall. You know, you can follow-up
with me if you want via email. We can
discuss this over the phone or further.
I have, you know, a lot of information
that falls on bralettes, but I had some
really good rulings on bralettes, I
probably would have posted them for you.
But we can discuss further if you like.
>> Okay. Someone noted bralette
comes up in the cross certainly. They
noted that in the chat box. Question,
if a knit sports bra has a shelf bra, is
it classified in 6114?
>> KAREN SIKORSKI: Knit sports bra
has a shelf bra, is it 6114? I have not
seen one. But I have seen items that
have been sports bras that -- sports
bras with a shelf bra. Hmm... I can't
say. That's perplexing question. I
have to ask you to put in a request for
binding ruling, honestly, because I have
not seen that. I have seen sports bras
that are completely knit. And they're
absolutely 100% knit. I've
deconstucted. I've actually done origin
ruling on them and there's interesting
different knit patterns in those bras
that provide support. But I have not
seen a shelf bra. I have not seen shelf
bra in anything in a while, honestly.
>> Okay. That's pretty much it.
There was a question that came in
earlier, couple of them about when the
new apparel terminology ICP will be
available? I checked with branch chief
Debbie Manalucci and she said it should
be available with sign off in a next few
months.
>> KAREN SIKORSKI: That's awesome.
We've been working on that publication
for quite some time and it's old. But
that's great to hear, Sandra. Thank
you.
>> I think that's all for the
questions.
>> KAREN SIKORSKI: Okay. Awesome.
Thank you, everybody.
>> We hope you found today's webinar
informative. The Continuing Education
credit code was placed in the WebEx chat
box during the presentation. And it
will be emailed to everyone within 48
hours. Today's webinar will be posted
on CBP.gov under the trade outreach
webinars in the coming weeks. We thank
you for joining us today. And this
afternoon, everyone.