WCO Set to Reconsider RF Equipment, Vitamin Classifications, Law Firm Says

The World Customs Organization will be reconsidering some classification decisions at the next Harmonized System Committee meeting in September, according to law firm Sandler Travis. The reconsideration involves classification decisions of "at least two products -- certain vitamins and certain RF generators and RE matching networks -- after reservations were filed by the U.S. and others against the classification decisions," Sandler Travis said in a June 20 email.

A CBP spokeswoman said that "CBP has been advocating for the classification of the referenced RF equipment under heading 84.86 (which provides for equipment for the manufacture of semiconductors)."

She said by email that this "has included bilateral discussions with Korea and then, when agreement with Korea was not reached, discussions at the Harmonized System Committee during its September 2018 and March 2019 sessions. The Committee decided during its March 2019 session to classify both products at issue under heading 85.43 (machines having an individual function not elsewhere specified). The U.S. Administration subsequently decided to submit a request for re-examination of the question (also referred to as a 'reservation'). The matter will be taken up again by the Harmonized System Committee in September of this year."

CBP apparently sought the changes after receiving a letter from the U.S. Council for International Business that noted some industry concerns, according to Sandler Travis. A USCIB spokesman confirmed that the group sent such a letter but declined to provide details about the concerns. The WCO didn't immediately return a request for comment.