CIT Rules on Classification of Printers Imported Pre-2007
The Court of International Trade on Nov. 23 ruled in favor of an importer in a classification case that centered on now-obsolete sections of the tariff schedule (here), finding commercial printers imported by Xerox classifiable in the 2004 HTS under…
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heading 8471 as units of automatic data processing machines. The government had argued the printers, subject to the 2004 HTS because they were imported that year, were instead classifiable as “other office machines” under heading 8472 because their speed and quality moved them out of the realm of mere office printers. However, CIT held to the long-held tenet that a tariff term must be interpreted to embrace all articles that subsequently come within its scope, finding the Xerox commercial printers have data processing capabilities that make them ADPs regardless of their print quality or speed. Tariff provisions classifying certain printers as ADPs were superseded by the World Customs Organization’s 2007 changes to the tariff schedule, which moved subheadings for laser printers to heading 8443 (see 06080430).