Solar Charger With Plastic Cover Not Exempt From Section 201 Safeguard Duties, CBP Says

A portable solar charger with a plastic cover on its photovoltaic panel does not qualify for an exclusion for off-grid and portable panels from Section 201 safeguards on solar products from China, CBP said in a recently published ruling. The relevant exclusion covers only portable and off-grid panels that are foldable or that have glass covers, so Arlo’s chargers with plastic covers don’t qualify, CBP said in HQ H299136, issued in May but only posted to CBP’s Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) database on Dec. 18.

While CBP and Arlo agreed that the Arlo Solar Panel Charger VMA4600 is classifiable as a DC generator of subheading 8501.31.80 -- which is subject to safeguard duties under subheading 9903.45.25 -- Arlo argued that it qualified for an exemption under U.S. Note 18 to subchapter III of chapter 99. Paragraph (c)(iii)(4) of that note excludes “off-grid and portable [crystalline silicon photovoltaic (CSPV)] panels, whether in a foldable case or in rigid form containing a glass cover.”

Arlo said its portable chargers meet all of the conditions listed for the exclusion: the power output of the panel is less than 100 watts, the maximum surface area is less than 8,000 square centimeters per panel, and the chargers only have DC to DC converters and no inverters that convert DC to AC electricity. Arlo said another condition -- that panels must be in retail packaging if they have glass covers -- does not exclude panels without glass covers, but only requires they be in retail packaging, which Arlo’s are.

But CBP said the language of the exclusion specifies that only off-grid and portable planes “in a foldable case or in rigid form containing a glass cover” are exempt from the safeguard duties. “If the exclusion was intended to cover all kinds of rigid-form CSPV panels, the additional language, “containing a glass cover” would not have been included,” CBP said.

“Based on its description, the VMA4600 comes neither in a foldable case nor with a glass cover on its rigid form. Although you contend that this factor alone does not preclude the product from qualifying for the exemption, citing subsequent texts in the Note, the product clearly does not fall within the scope of the Note based on the criteria in Note 18(c)(iii)(4),” CBP said. “Accordingly, because the product at issue is not subject to the exemption set out in Note 18(c)(iii)(4) to Chapter 99, it falls within the scope of subheading 9903.45.25,” it said.