WCO Explanatory Notes reproduced for reference. © World Customs Organization. Verify against official WCO publication.
14.04 - Vegetable products not elsewhere specified or included. 1404.20 - Cotton linters 1404.90 - Other This heading covers all vegetable products, not specified or included elsewhere in the Nomenclature. It includes : (A) Cotton linters. The seeds of certain varieties of cotton plants, after separation fiom the cotton fibres by , are still covered with a fine down formed of very short fibres (usually less than 5 mm ong). These fibres are known as cotton linters. ginninf Linters are too short for spinning; their very high cellulose content makes them an ideal raw material for the preparation of smokeless powders and the rnanuf~tureof man-made fibres (e.g., rayon) and cellulose plastics. They are also sometimes used in the manufacture of certain varieties of paper, filter blocks and as a filler in the rubber industry. Cotton linters are classified here irrespective of their intended use and whether raw, cleaned, bleached, dyed or rendered absorbent. They may be presented in bulk or strongly compressed in the form of sheets or slabs. The heading does not cover : (a) Wadding, medicated or put up in forms or packings for retail sale for medical, surgical, dental or vetennary purposes (heading 30.05). (b) Other wadding (heading 56.01). (B) Raw vegetable materials of a kind used primarily in dyeing or tanning. Such products are used primarily in dyeing or tanning either directly or in the preparation of dyein or tanning extracts. The materials may be untreated, cleaned, dried, ground or powdere (whether or not compressed). The more important are : (1) Wood : Sumach, fustic (including the so-called " young fustic "), logwood, quebracho, Brazil wood (including Pernarnbuco wood and sappan wood), chestnut, red sandalwood. It should be noted that woods of a kind used primarily in dyeing or in tanning are classified here only if in chips, in shavings or in ground or powdered form. In other forms, such wood is excluded (Chapter 44). (2) Bark : oaks of various kinds (including the black oak (quacitron) and the second bark of the cork-oak), chestnut, silver birch, sumach, " young fustlc ", wattle, mimosa, mangrove, hemlock and willow. (3) Roots and the like : madder, canaigre, Berberis vulgaris and alkanet. (4) Fruit, berries and seeds : Algarobilla pods, vallonia, myrobalans, dividivi (libidibi buckthorn berries (known also as Persian berries, Turkish seeds, yellow bemes, e.tc. annatto seeds and pulp, walnut hulls and almond hulls. (5) Gall nuts : Aleppo galls, Chinese galls, Hungarian galls, pine galls, etc. Gall nuts are excrescences produced on the leaves or twigs of various oak and other trees when punctured by certain insects such as those of the Cynips genus. They contain tannin and gallic acid, and are used in dyeing and in the preparation of certain writing inks. (6) Stems, stalks, leaves and flowers : stems, stalks and leaves of woad, sumach, " young fustic ", holly, myrtle, sunflower, henna, reseda, indigo plant; leaves of lentiscus (mastic); flowers of safflower (bastard saffron) and dyer's greenwood (Genista tinctoria; woadwaxen). It is to be noted that saffion stigmas and styles are excluded (heading 09.10). (7) Lichens : lichens fiom which the d es known as orchil (or archil), cudbear and litmus are obtained (Rocella tinctorin an fuciformis, Lichen tartareus and Lichen parellus, pustulous lichen or Umbilicariapustulata). 6' The heading excludes : (a) Tanning extracts of vegetable origin and tannins (tannic acids) including water-extracted gall-nut tannin (heading 32.01). (b) Dyewood extract and other vegetabIe dyeing extracts (heading 32.03). Hard seeds;pips, hulls and nuts of a kind used for carving. These roducts are primarily used for the manufacture of buttons, beads, rosaries and other small ancy-goods. P They include, inter alia : (1) Corozo, the seeds (" nuts ") of several varieties of palm trees which grow mainly in South America. Its texture, hardness and colour resemble those of ivory, hence its common name, " vegetable ivory ". (2) The seeds ('" nuts ") of the doum paIm which grows chiefly in East and Central Africa (Eritrea, Somaliland, the Sudan, etc.). (3) Similar 'huts " of certain other palms (e.g., Palmyra or Tahiti nuts). (4) Seeds of the Canna indica variety of reed (Indian shot); the seeds of the Abrus precatorius (also called bead-tree); date stones; the nuts of the piassava palm. (5) Coconut shells. The above products remain in this heading whether whole or (as is ffequently the case with corozo and doum nuts) sliced, but not if otherwise worked. When otherwise worked, they are excluded (usually heading 96.02 or 96.06). (D) Vegetable materials of a kind used primarily as stuffing or as padding (for example, kapok, vegetable hair and eel-grass), whether or not put up as a layer with or without supporting material. This category includes ve etable materials primarily used for stuffing fimiture, cushions, mattresses, pillows, sad ery and harness, life-buoys, etc. These materials remain classified in the heading even if they have subsidiary uses. The headin excludes vegetable materials used as stuffin but specified elsewhere or used for other purposes, e.g., wood wool (beadin j4.05), cork wool (heading 45.01), pr'"ipa!" coconut ibres (or coir) (heading 53.05) and waste of vegeta le textile fibres (Chapter 52 or 53). % The products of this group include, inter alia : (1) Kapok, the commercial name for the pale yellow or sometimes brownish floss surrounding the seeds of various trees of the Bombacaceae family. The fibres are 15 to 30 mm in len ,according to the variety, and are elastic, impermeable to water, light in weight but gile. %2 (2) Certain other ve etable downs (sometimes known as vegetable silks), formed by the unicellular hairs o the seeds of certain varieties of tropical plants (e.g., Asclepias). (3) The products known as vegetable hair, including Algerian fibre (crin ve etaZ), obtained from the leaves of certain varieties of dwarf palm trees (particular y the Chamaerops humilis). f (4) Eel-grass .(e.g., Zostera marina), a variety of marine plant, which is hair-like or grass-like in form. (5) A naturall curled product (foin $ 3 ~ 6 )obtained from the leaves of certain reeds of the genus arex. The heading covers these materials if raw, or if cleaned, bleached, dyed, carded or otherwise prepared (except for spinning). They remain classified in the heading when imported in hanks. The heading also covers a layer of vegetable materials of the types described above on a support of textile fabric, paper, etc., or put up between sheets of textile fabric, paper, etc., by stapling or simple sewtg. (E) Vegetable materials of a kind used primarily in brooms or in brushes (for example, broomcorn, piassava, couch-grass and istle), whether or not in hanks or bundles. This catego includes vegetable materials primarily used in brooms and brushes, etc., even if they ave subsidiary uses for other purposes. But it excludes ve etable materials specified elsewhere in the Nomenclature or not used principally for room or brush making, for example, bamboos, whether or not s lit, reeds and rushes (heading 14.01), alfa, esparto ass and stalks of broom, if prepare for textile use or heading 5F05 (alfa and esparto grass)), coconut fibres (or coir) 'K % d' The products of this group include, inter alia : (1) The panicles of rice, broomcorn (Sorghum vulgare var. technicum) or certain millets, with their seeds removed. (2) Piassava, the fibres obtained fiom the leaves of certain tropical palms. The best known varieties are Brazilian and African piassava. (3) Roots of couch-grass, a graminaceous plant of the genus Andropogon, which ows in dry, sandy soil. This plant, sometimes known as "brush-grass", is a weed ound in Europe, particularly in Hungary and Italy. The couch-grass roots should not be confhsed with those of vetiver (Khus-Khus grass or Indian couch- ass) which give an essential oil, nor with medicinal couch-grass the roots of w ich have curative properties (heading 12.11). P'= YI (4) The roots of certain other raminaceous plants of Central America such as those of the genus Epicampes (e.g., Z e broomroot or zacaton). (5) Gomuti fibres obtained from the Arenga saccharfera orpinnata. (6) Istle or ixtle (Tam ico, Tampico-fibre, or Mexican fibre) composed of fibres, including the shod sti fibres obtained from the short-leaved Mexican agave. PF All these materials remain in this heading whether or not cut, bleached, dyed or combed (other than for spinning), and whether or not in hanks or bundles. The heading does not, however, include prepared knots or tufts of fibre, ready for incorporation without divlsion in brooms or brushes (or requ~ringonly certain minor processes to be ready for such incorporation). These are classified in heading 96.03 (see Note 3 to Chapter 96). (F) Other vegetable products. These products include : (1) Esparto, from the esparto grass (Stipa tenacissirna) and the grass Lygeum spartum which grow in Africa and Spain. Their main use is 1n the manufacture of aper pulp, but they are also used in the manufacture of ropes and nets, of plaited artic es such as carpets, matting, baskets, footwear, etc.; and as stuffmg and padding materials for chairs and mattresses. Esparto is classified in this heading only if in the form of stems or leaves, whether raw, bleached or dyed; when rolled, crushed or combed as a textile fibre it is excluded (heading 53.05). (2) Alfa, if not prepased for textile use. (3) Raw stalks of broom, a leguminous plant the fibres of which are used in the textile industry; combed broom fibres or tow are excluded (heading 53.03). (4) Loofah, also known as vegetable sponge, composed of the cellular tissue of a variety of gourd (Lufa ccylindn'ca). Sponges of animal origin are excluded (heading 05.11). (5) Flours of corozo, of doum palm " nuts ", of coconut shell or the like. (6) Lichens (but not those used for dyeing (see Item (A) 7)), medicinal or ornamental Agar-agar, carrageenan and other natura mucilages and thickeners extracte from ve etable materials are excluded (heading 13.02). Seaweeds and other 2.12 and dead unicellular algae (heading 21.02) are also excluded. palgae u Oofs heading e \ f (7) Teazle-heads, including those prepared for use in textile finishing, but unmounted. (8) Japanese rice paper (so-called) made b slicing the pith of certain trees indigenous to the Far East. It is used for making arti clal flowers, for paintin s, etc. Sheets of this rice pa er remain classified in this heading whether or not they ave been calendered to leve their surface or have been cut to rectangular (including square) shape. d P % (9) Betel leaves, consisting of the fresh, een leaves of the vine Piper betle L. Betel leaves are most commonly chewed a er meals for their refreshing and stimulating effects. tB (10) Quillaia bark (soap bark or Panama bark) (Quillaia saponaria). (11) Sapindus berries or seeds (soapberries) (Sapindus mukorossi, S. trifoliatus, S. saponaria, S. marginatus, S. drummondii). A layer of vegetable materials (of the es pro er to this heading) on a support of textile fabnc, paper, etc., or put u between s eets o textile fabric, paper, etc., by stapling or simple sewing, is also classi led in this heading. f S F Section III ANIMAL OR WGETABLE FATS AND OILS AND THEIR CLEAVAGE PRODUCTS; PREPARED EDIBLE FATS; ANIMAL OR VEGETABLE WAXES
1.- This Chapter does not cover the following products which are to be classified in Section XI : vegetable materials or fibres of vegetable materials of a kind used primarily in the manufacture of textiles, however prepared, or other vegetable materials which have undergone treatment so as to render them suitable for use only as textile materials. 2.- Heading 14.01 applies, inter alia, to bamboos (whether or not split, sawn lengthwise, cut to length, rounded at the ends, bleached, rendered non-inflammable, polished or dyed), split osier, reeds and the like, to rattan cores and to drawn or split rattans. The heading does not apply to chipwood (heading 44.04). 3.- Heading 14.04 does not apply to wood wool (heading 44.05) and prepared knots or tufts for broom or brush making (heading 96.03).