Channel Master, Div. of Avnet, Inc. v. U.S., 88-1213

• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
• Writing for the Court: Before NIES, NEWMAN and MICHEL; MICHEL
• Citation: 856 F.2d 177
• Parties: , 6 Fed. Cir. (T) 175 CHANNEL MASTER, DIV. OF AVNET, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The UNITED STATES, Defendant-Appellee.
• Docket Number: No. 88-1213,88-1213
• Decision Date: 12 September 1988

Page 177

856 F.2d 177 10 ITRD 1817, 6 Fed. Cir. (T) 175 CHANNEL MASTER, DIV. OF AVNET, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
The UNITED STATES, Defendant-Appellee. No. 88-1213. United States Court of Appeals,
Federal Circuit. Sept. 12, 1988.

Page 178

Richard C. King, Fitch, King and Caffentzis, New York City, argued, for plaintiff-appellant.

Saul Davis, Commercial Litigation Branch, Dept. of Justice, New York City, argued, for defendant-appellee. With him on the brief, were John R. Bolton, Asst. Atty. Gen., David M. Cohen, Director and Joseph I. Liebman, Atty. in Charge, Intern. Trade Field Office.

Before NIES, NEWMAN and MICHEL, Circuit Judges.

MICHEL, Circuit Judge.

Channel Master, Div. of Avnet, Inc., appeals the judgment of the United States Court of International Trade, 648 F.Supp. 10 (Ct. Int'l Trade 1986) (Re, Chief Judge), upholding the classification by the United States Customs Service of Channel Master's imported merchandise as "other solid state (tubeless) radio receivers" under items 685.23 or 685.24 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States. We affirm.

Background

This case concerns three types of solid state "scanners" imported from Japan by the appellant during the years 1974 through 1977. Each type of scanner is designed, upon insertion of one or more crystals, to receive radio frequencies corresponding to the inserted crystals. However, the scanners are not exported with crystals. Instead, the crystals are inserted into the scanners by eventual purchasers after importation. Crystals are inserted into a scanner by removing the back panel of the scanner and placing the crystals in an empty space designed for their receipt.

Channel Master's scanners were classified by the Customs Service under the Tariff Schedules of the United States as "other solid-state (tubeless) radio receivers," dutiable at a rate of 10.4 percent of their value. In an action it filed in the Court of International Trade contesting denial of a protest, Channel Master objected to the "radio receiver" classification and asserted that, since its scanners, as imported, lacked crystals, the merchandise properly should have been classified as "parts of radio receivers" or "other radio broadcasting reception apparatus," under the Schedules, dutiable at a rate of 6 percent of their value. In response, the government argued that Channel Master's scanners were at least "unfinished" radio receivers and, therefore, correctly classified as radio receivers in keeping with the applicable rule of interpretation for the Tariff Schedules, 19 U.S.C. Sec. 1202 General Headnotes and Rules of Interpretation 10(h) (1982), which states that:

unless the context requires otherwise, a tariff description for an article covers such article, whether assembled or not assembled, and whether finished or not finished.

The Court of International Trade, relying upon Daisy-Heddon, Div. Victor Comptometer Corp. v. United States, 600 F.2d 799 (CCPA 1979), binding precedent of one of our...