CBP Finds U.S. is Country of Origin for Certain Office Chairs
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a final determination concerning the country of origin of an SAYL task chair and an SAYL side chair (collectively SAYL office chairs). CBP has determined that the U.S. is the country of origin of the SAYL office chairs for purposes of U.S. government procurement.
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The final determination was issued at the request of Herman Miller, Inc.
(CBP issues country of origin advisory rulings and final determinations on whether an article is or would be a product of a designated country or instrumentality for the purpose of granting waivers of certain ‘‘Buy American’’ restrictions in U.S. law or practice for products offered for sale to the U.S. government.)
Chairs Designed and Assembled in U.S. from Foreign and U.S. Parts
Herman Miller engineered and designed the office chairs wholly within the U.S. The assembly of the office chairs, from U.S. and imported components, occurs in the U.S.
The two types of office chairs share many of the same components. The components from China include: casters, tilt assembly, cylinder, arm supports, and plastic back (including the TPU mesh). The component from Canada is a five-star base subassembly. The components from the U.S. include: foam seat assembly, crossing, seat pan, spine, pelvis, midback foam assembly, leg base, glides, back frame, arms, and back assembly.
Some of the major components of the office chairs such as the spine, seat pan, and glides are of U.S. origin. In addition, the U.S.-origin fabric and the Chinese-origin TPU mesh, used in most aesthetic configurations of the SAYL office chairs, impart the essential identity of the chairs.
The production in the U.S. involves approximately 35 individual steps to convert the components into a finished chair. From start to finish, including quality testing and packaging, it takes approximately 19 minutes to manufacture the TPU mesh configuration and 17 minutes to manufacture the upholstered configuration.
CBP Says Chairs Products of U.S. as Substantial Transformation Occurs There
Under the described assembly process, CBP finds that the foreign components lose their individual identities and become an integral part of a new article, the SAYL office chairs, possessing a new name, character and use. In addition, CBP finds that the imported components that are used to manufacture the SAYL office chairs, when combined with the U.S. origin components, are substantially transformed as a result of the assembly operations performed in the U.S.
Therefore, CBP finds that the country of origin of the SAYL office chairs is the U.S. for government procurement purposes.
Any Party-at-Interest May Request Judicial Review by July 15
CBP states that any party-at-interest, as defined in 19 CFR 177.22(d), may seek judicial review of a final determination by July 15, 2011. In addition, under 19 CFR 177.31, any party-at-interest other than the party which requested this final determination may request that CBP reexamine the matter anew and issue a new final determination.
CBP contact - Elif Eroglu (202) 325-0277
(FR Pub 06/15/11, HQ H154135)