Chapter 85 - T2020
Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof; sound recorders and reproducers, television image and sound recorders and reproducers, and parts and accessories of such articles

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Notes.

1. This Chapter does not cover:

• (a) Electrically warmed blankets, bed pads, foot-muffs or the like; electrically warmed clothing, footwear or ear pads or other electrically warmed articles worn on or about the person;
• (b) Articles of glass of heading 70.11;
• (c) Machines and apparatus of heading 84.86;
• (d) Vacuum apparatus of a kind used in medical, surgical, dental or veterinary sciences (heading 90.18); or
• (e) Electrically heated furniture of Chapter 94.

2. Headings 85.01 to 85.04 do not apply to goods described in heading 85.11, 85.12, 85.40, 85.41 or 85.42.

However, metal tank mercury arc rectifiers remain classified in heading 85.04.

3. For the purposes of heading 85.07, the expression "electric accumulators" includes those presented with ancillary components which contribute to the accumulator's function of storing and supplying energy or protect it from damage, such as electrical connectors, temperature control devices (for example, thermistors) and circuit protection devices. They may also include a portion of the protective housing of the goods in which they are to be used.

4. Heading 85.09 covers only the following electro-mechanical machines of the kind commonly used for domestic purposes:

• (a) Floor polishers, food grinders and mixers, and fruit or vegetable juice extractors, of any weight;
• (b) Other machines provided the weight of such machines does not exceed 20 kg.

The heading does not, however, apply to fans or ventilating or recycling hoods incorporating a fan, whether or not fitted with filters (heading 84.14), centrifugal clothes-dryers, (heading 84.21), dish washing machines (heading 84.22), household washing machines (heading 84.50), roller or other ironing machines (heading 84.20 or 84.51), sewing machines (heading 84.52), electric scissors (heading 84.67) or to electro-thermic appliances (heading 85.16).

5. For the purposes of heading 85.23:

• (a) "Solid-state non-volatile storage devices" (for example, "flash memory cards" or "flash electronic storage cards") are storage devices with a connecting socket, comprising in the same housing one or more flash memories (for example, "FLASH E²PROM") in the form of integrated circuits mounted on a printed circuit board. They may include a controller in the form of an integrated circuit and discrete passive components, such as capacitors and resistors;
• (b) The term "smart cards" means cards which have embedded in them one or more electronic integrated circuits (a microprocessor, random access memory (RAM) or read-only memory (ROM)) in the form of chips. These cards may contain contacts, a magnetic stripe or an embedded antenna but do not contain any other active or passive circuit elements.

6. For the purpose of heading 85.34 "printed circuits" are circuits obtained by forming on an insulating base, by any printing process (for example, embossing, plating-up, etching) or by the "film circuit" technique, conductor elements, contacts or other printed components (for example, inductances, resistors, capacitors) alone or interconnected according to a pre-established pattern, other than elements which can produce, rectify, modulate or amplify an electrical signal (for example, semiconductor elements).

The expression "printed circuits" does not cover circuits combined with elements other than those obtained during the printing process, nor does it cover individual, discrete resistors, capacitors or inductances. Printed circuits may, however, be fitted with non-printed connecting elements.

Thin- or thick-film circuits comprising passive and active elements obtained during the same technological process are to be classified in heading 85.42.

7. For the purpose of heading 85.36, "connectors for optical fibres, optical fibre bundles or cables" means connectors that simply mechanically align optical fibres end to end in a digital line system. They perform no other function, such as the amplification, regeneration or modification of a signal.

8. Heading 85.37 does not include cordless infrared devices for the remote control of television receivers or other electrical equipment (heading 85.43).

9. For the purpose of headings 85.41 and 85.42:

• (a) "Diodes, transistors and similar semiconductor devices" are semiconductor devices the operation of which depends on variations in resistivity on the application of an electric field;
• (b) "Electronic integrated circuits and microassemblies" are:
  • (i) Monolithic integrated circuits in which the circuit elements (diodes, transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductances, etc.) are created in the mass (essentially) and on the surface of a semiconductor or compound semiconductor material (for example, doped silicon, gallium arsenide, silicon germanium, indium phosphide) and are inseparably associated;
  • (ii) Hybrid integrated circuits in which passive elements (resistors, capacitors, inductances, etc.), obtained by thin- or thick-film technology, and active elements (diodes, transistors, monolithic integrated circuits, etc.), obtained by semiconductor technology, are combined to all intents and purposes indivisibly, by interconnections or interconnecting cables, on a single insulating substrate (glass, ceramic, etc.). These circuits may also include discrete components;
  • (iii) Multichip integrated circuits consisting of two or more interconnected monolithic integrated circuits combined to all intents and purposes indivisibly, whether or not on one or more insulating substrates, with or without leadframes, but with no other active or passive circuit elements.
  • (iv) Multi-component integrated circuits (MCOs): a combination of one or more monolithic, hybrid, or multi-chip integrated circuits with at least one of the following components: silicon-based sensors, actuators, oscillators, resonators or combinations thereof, or components performing the functions of articles classifiable under heading 85.32, 85.33, 85.41, or inductors classifiable under heading 85.04, formed to all intents and purposes indivisibly into a single body like an integrated circuit, as a component of a kind used for assembly onto a printed circuit board (PCB) or other carrier, through the connecting of pins, leads, balls, lands, bumps, or pads.
    
    For the purpose of this definition :
    • 1.  "Components" may be discrete, manufactured independently then assembled onto the rest of the MCO, or integrated into other components.
    • 2.  "Silicon based" means built on a silicon substrate, or made of silicon materials, or manufactured onto integrated circuit die.
    • 3. 
      • (a) "Silicon based sensors" consist of microelectronic or mechanical structures that are created in the mass or on the surface of a semiconductor and that have the function of detecting physical or chemical quantities and transducing these into electric signals, caused by resulting variations in electric properties or displacement of a mechanical structure. "Physical or chemical quantities" relates to real world phenomena, such as pressure, acoustic waves, acceleration, vibration, movement, orientation, strain, magnetic field strength, electric field strength, light, radioactivity, humidity, flow, chemicals concentration, etc.
      • (b) "Silicon based actuators" consist of microelectronic and mechanical structures that are created in the mass or on the surface of a semiconductor and that have the function of converting electrical signals into physical movement.
      • (c) "Silicon based resonators" are components that consist of microelectronic or mechanical structures that are created in the mass or on the surface of a semiconductor and have the function of generating a mechanical or electrical oscillation of a predefined frequency that depends on the physical geometry of these structures in response to an external input.
      • (d) "Silicon based oscillators" are active components that consist of microelectronic or mechanical structures that are created in the mass or on the surface of a semiconductor and that have the function of generating a mechanical or electrical oscillation of a predefined frequency that depends on the physical geometry of these structures.

For the classification of the articles defined in this Note, headings 85.41 and 85.42 shall take precedence over any other heading in the Nomenclature, except in the case of heading 85.23, which might cover them by reference to, in particular, their function.

10. For the purposes of heading 85.48, "spent primary cells, spent primary batteries and spent electric accumulators" are those which are neither usable as such because of breakage, cutting-up, wear or other reasons, nor capable of being recharged.

Subheading Note.

1. Subheadings 8527.12 covers only cassette-players with built-in amplifier, without built-in loudspeaker, capable of operating without an external source of electric power and the dimensions of which do not exceed 170 mm x 100 mm x 45 mm.

Supplementary Notes.

1. For purposes of this Chapter, "printed circuit assembly" means a good consisting of one or more printed circuits of heading 85.34 with one or more active elements assembled on it, with or without passive elements. For purposes of this Note, "active elements" means diodes, transistors and similar semiconductor devices, whether or not photosensitive, of heading 85.41, and integrated circuits of heading 85.42.

2. For purposes of this Chapter:

• (a) references to "high definition" as it applies to television receivers and cathode-ray tubes refers to goods having
  • (i) an aspect ratio of the screen equal to or greater than 16:9, and
  • (ii) a viewing screen capable of displaying more than 700 scanning lines; and
• (b) the video display diagonal is determined by measuring the maximum straight line dimension across the visible portion of the face plate used for displaying video.

3. For the purposes of heading 85.23, "software" means programs that are recorded on diskettes, compact discs, magnetic tape or any other suitable storage medium and that are designed to be executed by a computer or similar programmable, microprocessor-controlled device or apparatus but does not mean audio or video recordings of a type used with sound recording or reproducing apparatus of heading 85.19 or with video recording or reproducing apparatus of heading 85.21.

Statistical Notes.

(NB These notes do not form part of the Customs Tariff legislation.)

1. For the statistical purposes of subheading 8539.10, the size of a sealed beam lamp unit is determined by measuring the largest diagonal dimension across the face-plate for rectangular lamp units and the diameter for circular lamp units.

2. For the statistical purposes of subheadings 8525.50 and 8525.60, the lowest operating frequency will determine the classification.

3. For the statistical purposes of subheading 8544.70 having a unit of measure “metre”, the intention is to capture the total number of metres obtained by multiplying the number of individual fibres by the length.

Customs Tariff Schedule

Date modified:

2019-12-19