Composite goods classification turns on essential character; pipes and fittings for pipelines are not machinery parts.

Imported pipes and fittings made of a composite material were held not to be parts of machinery under Heading 84.17(i) because they were described as pipes and fittings to be cut and assembled into pipelines, not as finished machinery components. Applying the tariff interpretative rules, composite goods had to be classified by the material giving them their essential character. On that basis, the goods were classifiable as articles of plastic or synthetic resin under Heading 39.07, rather than as articles of asbestos under Heading 68.01/16(1). The note confirms that description as pipeline inputs does not by itself make such goods machinery parts.

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Issues: Whether pipes and fittings made of a composite material were classifiable as parts of machinery under Heading 84.17(i) of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 or as articles of plastic/synthetic resin under Heading 39.07, and whether they could be treated as articles of asbestos under Heading 68.01/16(1).

Analysis: The goods, as imported, were described by the manufacturer and by the appellants themselves as pipes and fittings to be cut and assembled into pipelines, not as finished component parts of machinery. On that footing, they could not be classified as machinery parts under Heading 84.17(i). The classification of the composite goods had then to be determined under the statutory interpretative rules, under which a reference to a material includes mixtures or combinations of that material with other substances, and composite goods are to be classified according to the material giving them their essential character. The record showed that the appellants relied on the goods being plastic or synthetic resin in character, while resisting the Department's asbestos classification.

Conclusion: The goods were not parts of machinery under Heading 84.17(i). They were classifiable as articles of plastic/synthetic resin under Heading 39.07, and the appeal was therefore not maintainable on the claim for re-assessment as machinery parts.

Ratio Decidendi: Composite imported goods are to be classified under the heading corresponding to the material that gives them their essential character, and goods imported as pipes and fittings for later fabrication into pipelines are not, by that description alone, component parts of machinery.

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