Classification of clicking dies with footwear machinery upheld under heading 8453, not as knives or cutting blades.

Clicking dies manufactured from clicking knives were classified by functional use and tariff notes, not by the general description of knives. Heading 8453 covers machinery for making or repairing footwear and, under the explanatory notes, includes clicking presses and dies or interchangeable tools used with such machinery. Because the goods were used in a clicking press for footwear manufacture, they fell within heading 8453 rather than heading 8208. The classification under heading 8453 was upheld and the contrary departmental challenge failed.

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Issues: Whether clicking dies manufactured out of clicking knives were classifiable under heading 8208 as knives and cutting blades, or under heading 8453 as machinery for making or repairing footwear or other articles of hides, skins or leather, including parts and dies used with such machinery.

Analysis: The dispute turned on the functional use of the goods and the scope of the tariff headings. Heading 8208 covers knives and cutting blades, while heading 8453 covers machinery for working hides, skins or leather and for making or repairing footwear, and the explanatory notes indicate that this heading includes machines for cutting leather into particular shapes, including clicking presses. The goods in question were found to be used in a clicking press for making footwear, and the notes also state that dies and other interchangeable tools for such machines are classified with the machines themselves. The objection based on the absence of a specific reference to blades and knives in heading 8453 was rejected, as the applicable tariff notes supported classification with the machine heading.

Conclusion: The clicking dies were correctly classifiable under heading 8453 and not under heading 8208.

Final Conclusion: The department's challenge to the classification failed, and the assessee's classification was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: Dies and interchangeable tools used with machinery for making footwear are classifiable with that machinery when the tariff notes expressly include them under the relevant heading.

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