Commercial classification of rolled copper flats or strips follows manufactured character and trade description, not crude bar form.

Copper and copper alloy wire bars rolled into flats or strips are classified by their manufactured and commercial character, not by their original crude form. Where the product is known in trade as flats or strips and no material shows that its size or thickness falls outside the ordinary understanding of a strip, it is treated as a manufactured strip. On that basis, the product was correctly classifiable under Tariff Item 26A(2) as a strip rather than under Tariff Item 26A(ia) as a bar.

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Issues: Whether the product, described as bars loosely called flats or strips made from duty-paid copper and copper alloy wire bars, was classifiable as a bar under Tariff Item 26A(ia) or as a strip under Tariff Item 26A(2).

Analysis: The classification turned on the nature of the product after manufacture and the description by which it was known in trade. The product was produced by rolling copper and copper alloy wire bars, and thus was no longer in crude bar form. The appellants themselves described it as flats or strips, and no material was produced to show that its size or thickness took it outside the ordinary understanding of a strip. In these circumstances, the product was treated as a manufactured strip rather than a bar.

Conclusion: The product was correctly classified under Tariff Item 26A(2) as a strip, not under Tariff Item 26A(ia) as a bar.

Final Conclusion: The appeal failed and the classification adopted by the lower appellate authority was sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a product is manufactured by rolling from wire bars and is known in trade as a flat or strip, it is classifiable according to its commercial and manufactured character rather than as a crude bar.

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