Heating Blanket Controller Importer Fights for Preferred HTS Classification at CIT

In a complaint at the Court of International Trade, importer Kehoe Component Sales said its heating blanket controllers should be classified under subheading 9032.89.60, dutiable at 1.7%. CBP liquidated the entries under subheading 8537.10.9070, dutiable at 2.7%.

Kehoe said the heating controllers belong under Chapter 90, which under Note 7(b), says heading 9032 applies to “Automatic regulators of electrical quantities, and instruments or apparatus for automatically controlling non-electrical quantities the operation of which depends on an electrical phenomenon varying according to the factor to be controlled, which are designed to bring this factor to, and maintain it at, a desired value, stabilized against disturbances, by constantly or periodically measuring its actual value.”

The heating controllers have two measuring devices that control the voltage applied to the heating element to achieve and maintain the selected temperature, a micro-controller processor and surrounding circuitry that constitute the electrical control device, the complaint said. Based on a signal from the micro-controller, the semiconductor AC switch acts as a starting and stopping device that either applies or disconnects AC line voltage to the heating element. Based on this description, the product fits under Chapter 90 and is precluded from being classified under heading 8537 because Note 1(m) stops Chapter 90 articles from falling under this provision, the complaint said.