WCO Explanatory Notes reproduced for reference. © World Customs Organization. Verify against official WCO publication.
44.18 - Builders' joinery and carpentry of wood, including cellular wood panels, assembled flooring panels, shingles and shakes (+). 4418.10 44 18.20 4418.40 4418.50 4418.60 - Windows, French-windows and their frames - Doors and their fiames and thresholds - Shuttering for concrete constructional work - Shingles and shakes - Posts and beams - Assembled flooring panels : 4418.71 - - For mosaic floors 44 18.72 - - Other, multilayer - - Other 4418.90 - Other 4418.79 This heading applies to woodwork, including that of wood marque or inlaid wood, used in the construction of any kind of building, etc., in the form of assemble goods or as recognisable unassembled pieces (e.g., pr ared with tenons, mortises, dovetails or other similar joints for assembly), whether or not wigtheir metal fittings such as hinges, locks, etc. Y The articles of this heading may be made of ordin wood or of particle board or similar board, fibreboard, laminated wood or densified wood (see ote 3 to this Chapter). S The term " joinery " applies more particularly to builders' fittings (such as doors, windows, shutters, stars, door or window ftames), whereas the term " carpentry refers to woodwork (such as beams, rafters and roof struts) used for structural purposes or in scaffoldings, arch supports, etc., and includes assembled shuttering for concrete constructional work. However, lywood panels, even if surface treated for the purposes of concrete shuttering, are classified in Reading 44.12. " Builders' carpentry also includes glue-laminated timber (glulam), which is a structural timber product obtained by gluing together a number of wood lammations having their ain essentially arallel. Laminations of curved members are arranged so that the plane of each amination is at $0 degrees to the plane of the applied load; thus, laminations of a straight glularn beam are laid flat. Q This heading also covers cellular wood anels which are somewhat similar in a pearance to the blockboard and battenboard describe in the Explanatory Note to heading 49.12, but the other, either parallel or in lattice form. separated by an internal frame at the wit% sound-insulating or heat-resisting materials The facing sheets may be of solid wood, particle and the panels Qikethose in heading 44.12) may are relatively light but strong and are used for be faced with base partitions, doors and sometimes in the manufacture of furniture. ! This heading also covers solid blocks, strips, friezes, etc., assembled into flooring panels (including parquet panels) or tiles, with or without borders. It also includes flooring anels or tiles conslshng of blocks, strips, friezes, etc., assembled on a su port of one or more ayers of wood, known as ccmoltilnyer"parquet flooring panels. l f e top la er (wear layer) is commonly made fi-om two or more rows of strips making up the panel. These panels or tiles may be tongued and grooved at the edges to facil~tateassembly. P A shingle is wood sawn lengthwise which is generally thicker than 5 mm at one end (the butt) but thinner than 5 mm at the other end (the tip). It may have its edges resawn to be parallel; its butt may be resawn to be at ri t angles to its edges or to form a curve or other shape. One of its faces may be sanded from the utt to the tip or grooved along its length. e A shake is wood split by hand or machine from a bolt or block. Its face reveals the natural texture of the wood resulting from the s litting process. Shakes are sometimes sawn lengthwise through their thicknesses to obtain two s akes, each then having a split face and a sawn back. R The heading does not cover : (a) Plywood panels, veneered panels or panels of similar laminated wood, used as flooring panels, which have a thln veneer of wood affixed to the surface so as to imitate an assembled flooring panel of heading 44.18 (heading 44.12). (b) Cu boards, with or without backs, even if designed to be nailed or otherwise secured to the ceiling or wae (heading 94.03). (c) Prefabricatedbuildings (heading 94.06).
Notes. 1.- This Chapter does not cover : (a) Wood, in chips, in shavings, crushed, ground or powdered, of a kind used primarily in perfumery, in pharmacy, or for insecticidal, fungicidal or similar purposes (heading 12.11); (b) Bamboos or other materials of a woody nature of a kind used primarily for plaiting, in the rough, whether or not split, sawn lengthwise or cut to length (heading 14.01); (c) Wood, in chips, in shavings, ground or powdered, of a kind used primarily in dyeing or in tanning (heading 14.04); (d) Activated charcoal (heading 38.02); (e) Articles of heading 42.02; (f) Goods of Chapter 46; (g) Footwear or parts thereof of Chapter 64; (h) Goods of Chapter 66 (for example, umbrellas and walking-sticks and parts thereof); (ij) Goods of heading 68.08; (k) Imitation jewellery of heading 71.17; (l) Goods of Section XVI or Section XVII (for example, machine parts, cases, covers, cabinets for machines and apparatus and wheelwrights' wares); (m) Goods of Section XVIII (for example, clock cases and musical instruments and parts thereof); (n) Parts of firearms (heading 93.05); (o) Articles of Chapter 94 (for example, furniture, luminaires and lighting fittings, prefabricated buildings); (p) Articles of Chapter 95 (for example, toys, games, sports requisites); (q) Articles of Chapter 96 (for example, smoking pipes and parts thereof, buttons, pencils, and monopods, bipods, tripods and similar articles) excluding bodies and handles, of wood, for articles of heading 96.03; or (r) Articles of Chapter 97 (for example, works of art). 2.- In this Chapter, the expression “densified wood” means wood which has been subjected to chemical or physical treatment (being, in the case of layers bonded together, treatment in excess of that needed to ensure a good bond), and which has thereby acquired increased density or hardness together with improved mechanical strength or resistance to chemical or electrical agencies. 3.- Headings 44.14 to 44.21 apply to articles of the respective descriptions of particle board or similar board, fibreboard, laminated wood or densified wood as they apply to such articles of wood. 4.- Products of heading 44.10, 44.11 or 44.12 may be worked to form the shapes provided for in respect of the goods of heading 44.09, curved, corrugated, perforated, cut or formed to shapes other than square or rectangular or submitted to any other operation provided it does not give them the character of articles of other headings. 5.- Heading 44.17 does not apply to tools in which the blade, working edge, working surface or other working part is formed by any of the materials specified in Note 1 to Chapter 82. 6.- Subject to Note 1 above and except where the context otherwise requires, any reference to “wood” in a heading of this Chapter applies also to bamboos and other materials of a woody nature. Subheading Notes. 1.- For the purposes of subheading 4401.31, the expression “wood pellets” means by-products such as cutter shavings, sawdust or chips, of the mechanical wood processing industry, furniture-making industry or other wood transformation activities, which have been agglomerated either directly by compression or by the addition of a binder in a proportion not exceeding 3 % by weight. Such pellets are cylindrical, with a diameter not exceeding 25 mm and a length not exceeding 100 mm. 2.- For the purposes of subheading 4401.32, the expression “wood briquettes” means by-products such as cutter shavings, sawdust or chips, of the mechanical wood processing industry, furniture making or other wood transformation activities, which have been agglomerated either directly by compression or by addition of a binder in a proportion not exceeding 3 % by weight. Such briquettes are in the form of cubiform, polyhedral or cylindrical units with the minimum cross-sectional dimension greater than 25 mm. 3.- For the purposes of subheading 4407.13, “S-P-F” refers to wood sourced from mixed stands of spruce, pine and fir where the proportion of each species varies and is unknown. 4.- For the purposes of subheading 4407.14, “Hem-fir” refers to wood sourced from mixed stands of Western hemlock and fir where the proportion of each species varies and is unknown.