In ruling NY N312553 (July 16, 2020), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) discussed the classification of vegetable oil spreads.

There are two products under review:

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!® is made of vegetable oil (canola oil, palm kernel oil, and palm oil, canola – 45 percent), water, salt, sunflower lecithin, natural flavor, vinegar, vitamin A palmitate and beta-carotene (color). The product will be imported in retail sized tubs with a net weight of 490 grams.

Flora™ Plant Butter is made of vegetable oil (palm oil, palm kernel oil, sunflower oil, and canola oil – 79 percent), water, salt, sunflower lecithin, fava bean protein, citric acid, natural flavor, beta carotene (color), and vitamin A palmitate.  The product will be imported in retail sized paper wrappers with a net weight of 250 grams.

CBP determined that the applicable subheading for the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!®” and “Flora™ Plant Butter” will be 1517.90.9090, HTSUS, which provides for: “Margarine; edible mixtures or preparations of animal or vegetable fats or oils or of fractions of different fats or oils of this chapter, other than edible fats or oils or their fractions of heading 1516: Other: Other: Other.” The rate of duty is 8.8 cents/kg.

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Photo of Frances P. Hadfield Frances P. Hadfield

Frances P. Hadfield is a counsel in Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group in the firm’s New York office. Her practice focuses on forced labor and withhold release orders (WRO), import regulatory compliance, and customs litigation. She regularly advises corporations on matters involving…

Frances P. Hadfield is a counsel in Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group in the firm’s New York office. Her practice focuses on forced labor and withhold release orders (WRO), import regulatory compliance, and customs litigation. She regularly advises corporations on matters involving customs compliance, audits, customs enforcement, as well as import penalties.

Frances represents clients before the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, as well as in proceedings at the administrative level. She advises corporations on both substantive federal and state regulatory issues that involve U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Trade Commission, Food and Drug Administration, and U.S. Fish & Wildlife in matters pertaining to product admissibility, audits, classification, import restrictions, investigations, marking, licenses, origin, penalties, and tariff preference programs.

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