CIT Again Says Bioreactors Are Correctly Classified in HTS 8479.82

Applikon’s Bioreactor Systems are correctly classified under subheading 8479.82.00, (free) Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. (HTSUS), said the U.S. Court of International Trade in a decision March 28. The U.S. had moved for a rehearing of an earlier decision to correct what it said was “clear error” in the court’s decision.

The government faulted Applikon I’s failure to explain the analysis that led the court to classify the merchandise in subheading 8479.82.00, HTSUS. The court granted the government’s motion to the extent it requests further explanation of the court’s decision. The government’s motion was denied with regard to its alternate classifications.

The government had argued that the court had erred by failing to apply the General Rules of Interpretation (“GRI”) at the subheading level in Applikon I. If the court had properly applied those rules, it said, the correct classification would have been in subheading 8479.89.65 (2.8%) or 8479.89.98 (2.5%), HTSUS. The court decided that subheading 8479.82.00 should apply, but the government said that is incorrect because it does not describe “the entire imported merchandise rather than only one component.”

In Applikon I, the court found it unnecessary to decide whether the mixing or temperature control functions provided the primary function of the Bioreactor Systems. The court said the Bioreactor Systems’ primary function is cell growth, which function is not described in any Chapter 84 heading.

Where a machine or combination of machines consists of individual components intended to contribute together to a clearly defined function covered by one of the headings in chapter 84 or chapter 85, then the whole falls to be classified in the heading appropriate to that function, the CIT decided in the latest case.

(See ITT’s Online Archives 11121409, where the same court found that the Applikon bioreactor systems are HTS 8479 machinery)