Plastic tile classification turns on Chapter 39 scheme, with square and rectangular cellular goods falling under heading 3921.

Cellular plastic goods manufactured as square and rectangular tiles were held classifiable under heading 3921 as plates, sheets, film, foil and strip of plastics, read with Chapter Note 10 and the Harmonised System of Nomenclature. The tariff scheme of Chapter 39 required headings 3920 and 3921 to be read together, and regular geometric shapes not further worked fell within that coverage. Heading 3925 for builders' ware of plastics was inapplicable because the goods were already covered by the earlier specific heading. Chapter Note 11 did not assist the assessee, and the lower authority's classification was upheld.

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Issues: Whether the goods manufactured as square and rectangular plastic tiles were classifiable under heading 3921 as other plates, sheets, film, foil and strip of plastics, or under heading 3925 as builders' ware of plastics.

Analysis: The classification turned on the scheme of Chapter 39 and the operation of Chapter Note 10, which extends the expressions in headings 39.20 and 39.21 to plates, sheets, film, foil and strip and to blocks of regular geometric shape cut into rectangles or squares but not further worked. The goods were cellular plastic articles manufactured in square and rectangular form, and the Tribunal read headings 3920 and 3921 together as part of the same tariff scheme. It also relied on the Harmonised System of Nomenclature, which supports classification of such cellular or laminated plastic products under heading 39.21, and treated heading 3925 as inapplicable because the goods were already covered by an earlier heading. Chapter Note 11 was held not to assist the assessee.

Conclusion: The goods were correctly classifiable under heading 3921 and not under heading 3925.

Final Conclusion: The tariff classification adopted by the lower authority was upheld and the appeals failed.

Ratio Decidendi: For classification under Chapter 39, the relevant tariff headings and chapter notes must be read as a connected scheme, and where cellular plastic goods in regular geometric shapes are covered by heading 3921 as construed with Chapter Note 10 and the HSN, a residual builders' ware heading cannot be invoked.

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