&&Kalustyan Corporation imports whole ginger from Nigeria into the United States under 0910.11.00.15 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States. After importation the whole ginger is inspected, cleaned if necessary and ground at Kalustyan Corporation’s plant in Union, New Jersey. The ground ginger is then packaged in 50 pound paper bags and exported to industrial users in Canada. When imported into Canada the tariff classification of the ground ginger is 0910.12.00.00.

&&At issue is whether the ground ginger qualifies for preferential NAFTA tariff treatment under the NAFTA Rules of Origin Regulations. As this product is not wholly obtained or produced entirely in one of the NAFTA territories, it will qualify as an originating good only if the non-originating materials used in its manufacture meet the requirements of the Specific Rules of Origin found in Schedule I of the NAFTA Rules of Origin Regulations and satisfy all other applicable requirements of the Regulations.&&&&The specific rule of origin for the ground ginger requires "A change to a good of subheading 0910.10 from within that subheading or any other chapter". Due to amendments to the 2012 Customs Tariff, subheading 0910.10 is now a suppressed subheading that has been further subdivided into subheadings 0910.11 and 0910.12. Thus whole ginger, formerly classified 0910.10.10.00 is now classified 0910.11.00.00 and ground ginger, formerly classified 0910.10.20.00 is now classified 0910.12.00.00. Although the NAFTA Specific Rules of Origin have not yet been amended to reflect these changes, the rule of origin as it appears in the Regulations is applicable to goods now classified under subheadings 0910.11 and 0910.12 that would have been classified under subheading 0910.10 prior to these amendments.&&