Heading 3208 classification for non-aqueous solutions upheld; low solvent content did not take the products outside the tariff heading.

Heading 3208 covers paints and varnishes based on synthetic polymers, chemically modified natural polymers, or natural resins, including non-aqueous solutions described in Chapter Note 3. Chapter Note 3 does not exclude products merely because the volatile organic solvent content is below 53%; it only explains the kind of solutions included in the heading. As the goods were admittedly non-aqueous solutions, they remained classifiable under Heading 3208, and the argument that they were non-excisable on that basis was rejected.

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Issues: Whether Chapter Note 3 to Chapter 32 excluded the assessee's products from Heading 3208 and rendered them non-excisable.

Analysis: Heading 3208 covered paints and varnishes based on synthetic polymers or chemically modified natural polymers, or natural resins, dispersed or dissolved in a non-aqueous medium, and also solutions as defined in Note 3. Chapter Note 3 did not create an exclusion for goods merely because the percentage of volatile organic solvent was below 53 per cent. The note only explained the category of solutions included within Heading 32.08. The products were admittedly non-aqueous solutions and remained within the tariff heading; the assessee's reading that a lower solvent percentage took them outside the heading was unsustainable.

Conclusion: The products were correctly classifiable under Heading 3208 and were not non-excisable on the basis urged by the assessee.

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