&&This is an ear piercing instrument comprised of a hard plastic body with a cartridge channel and handle; contained inside the instrument is a metal spring and plunger. This device operates with a disposable, sterilized cartridge that is preloaded with an earring (hoop or stud type). The operator loads the cartridge into the instrument, removes the clear blister-pack from the cartridge, aligns the instrument with a mark previously made on the customer’s ear, then squeezes the handle of the instrument firmly to push the earring through the ear.

&&You have proposed that the Studex System 75 Ear Piercing Instrument be classified in heading 90.18 of the Customs Tariff as an ‘other’, medical instrument and apparatus. The Explanatory Notes to heading 90.18 provide for the inclusion of a wide variety of goods, “which, in the vast majority of cases, are used only in professional practice (e.g., by doctors, surgeons, dentists, veterinary surgeons, midwives), either to make a diagnosis, to prevent or treat an illness or to operate, etc.”. The Explanatory Notes further state:&&&&“It should also be noted that a number of the instruments used in medicine or surgery (human or veterinary) are, in effect, tools (e.g., hammers, mallets, saws, chisels, gouges, forceps, pliers, spatulae, etc.), or articles of cutlery (scissors, knives, shears, etc.). Such articles are classified in this heading only when they are clearly identifiable as being for medical or surgical use by reason of their special shape, the ease with which they are dismantled for sterilisation, their better quality manufacture, the nature of the constituent metals or by their get-up (frequently packed in cases or boxes containing a set of instruments for a particular treatment : childbirth, autopsies, gynaecology, eye or ear surgery, veterinary cases for parturition, etc.)”.&&&&The Studex System 75 Ear Piercing Instrument is not used by medical or surgical professionals, but by lay people in the retail and beauty industries. Further, there is nothing in its design that identifies this product as being for medical or surgical use. Therefore, the Studex System 75 Ear Piercing Instrument is excluded from classification in heading 90.18.&&&&Chapter 82 of the Customs Tariff covers tools, implements, cutlery, spoons and forks, of base metal. Note 1 to this Chapter states that it covers only articles that have a working blade, edge, surface or working part of certain specific materials including metal. Heading 82.05 provides for, inter alia, hand tools not elsewhere specified or included. As a tool used in the hand with a working part (the metal spring and plunger) of metal, the Studex System 75 Ear Piercing Instrument meets the terms of heading 82.05 and is appropriately classified therein, specifically under subheading 8205.59 as “other hand tools, other”.&&