The tariff classification of frozen boneless COW TRIMMINGS35CL from Australia.

NY 866100 September 13, 1991 CLA-2-02:S:N:N1:229-866100 CATEGORY: Classification TARIFF NO.: 0202.30.6000 Ms. Tina Kuehne Mittelstaedt, Galaviz & Mylin 450 Sansome Street, Suite 200 San Francisco, CA 94111-3310 RE: The tariff classification of frozen boneless COW TRIMMINGS 35CL from Australia. Dear Ms. Kuehne: In your letter dated August 2, 1991, you requested a tariff classification ruling. Frozen boneless COW TRIMMINGS 35CL is described as a boneless beef product, consisting of boneless beef lean and fat, which is put up with a consistent ratio of 35 percent lean meat to 65 percent beef fat. The trimmings themselves are said to be pieces of fat with meat attached, derived from meat trimming operations in a packing plant. Because of its high fat content, this product is not intended to be eaten in its imported condition, but is used by meat processors as a 'filler' in ground beef, in salami and other sausages, and in similar products. In use, these trimmings are "mixed with the leaner beef to adjust the final fat content of their product." You state that you have tentatively entered this product as frozen boneless beef in heading 0202.30.6000, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS); that you believe this product has also been entered as beef fat in Chapter 15 of the Harmonized Tariff; and that this product may, in fact, be classifiable as "meat offal" of heading 0206, HTS. Legal Note 1(c) in Chapter 2, HTS, excludes from classification therein "Animal fat, other than products of heading 0209 (Chapter 15)." Regarding this exclusion, the Explanatory Notes to Chapter 2 state that "Animal fat presented separately is excluded (chapter 15)(except in case of unrendered pig fat free of lean meat and unrendered poultry fat which fall in heading 02.09 even if fit only for industrial use), but fat presented in the carcass or adhering to meat is treated as forming part of the meat. [Underlining supplied.] Accordingly, as this product consists of fat adhering to meat and, in fact, has a lean meat content of 35 percent, it would not be considered, for tariff purposes, as an animal fat of Chapter 15, but as "meat of bovine animals" in Chapter 2. We note, finally, that this product is not "meat offal," as described in the Explanatory Notes to Chapter 2. The applicable subheading for frozen boneless COW TRIMMINGS 35CL will be 0202.30.6000, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS), which provides for Meat of bovine animals, frozen:...Boneless:...Other. The rate of duty will be 4.4 cents per kilogram. This ruling is being issued under the provisions of Section 177 of the Customs Regulations (19 C.F.R. 177). A copy of this ruling letter should be attached to the entry documents filed at the time this merchandise is imported. If the documents have been filed without a copy, this ruling should be brought to the attention of the Customs officer handling the transaction. Sincerely, Jean F. Maguire Area Director New York Seaport