Chapter notes
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Revision 29 (2025)
Annotated for Statistical Reporting Purposes
CHAPTER 90
OPTICAL, PHOTOGRAPHIC, CINEMATOGRAPHIC, MEASURING, CHECKING, PRECISION, MEDICAL
OR SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS AND APPARATUS; PARTS AND ACCESSORIES THEREOF
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Notes
1. This chapter does not cover:
(a) Articles of a kind used in machines, appliances or for other technical uses, of vulcanized rubber other than hard rubber
(heading 4016), of leather or of composition leather (heading 4205) or of textile material (heading 5911);
(b) Supporting belts or other support articles of textile material, whose intended effect on the organ to be supported or held
derives solely from their elasticity (for example, maternity belts, thoracic support bandages, abdominal support bandages,
supports for joints or muscles) (section XI);
(c) Refractory goods of heading 6903; ceramic wares for laboratory, chemical or other technical uses, of heading 6909;
(d) Glass mirrors, not optically worked, of heading 7009, or mirrors of base metal or of precious metal, not being optical elements
(heading 8306 or chapter 71);
(e) Goods of heading 7007, 7008, 7011, 7014, 7015 or 7017;
(f) Parts of general use, as defined in note 2 to Section XV, of base metal (Section XV) or similar goods of plastics (chapter
39); however, articles specially designed for use exclusively in implants in medical, surgical, dental or veterinary sciences
are to be classified in heading 9021;
(g) Pumps incorporating measuring devices, of heading 8413; weight-operated counting or checking machinery, or separately
entered weights for balances (heading 8423); lifting or handling machinery (headings 8425 to 8428); paper or paperboard
cutting machines of all kinds (heading 8441); fittings for adjusting work or tools on machine tools or water-jet cutting machines,
of heading 8466, including fittings with optical devices for reading the scale (for example, "optical" dividing heads) but not
those which are in themselves essentially optical instruments (for example, alignment telescopes); calculating machines
(heading 8470); valves or other appliances of heading 8481, machines and apparatus (including apparatus for the projection
or drawing of circuit patterns on sensitized semiconductor materials) of heading 8486;
(h) Searchlights or spotlights of a kind used for cycles or motor vehicles (heading 8512); portable electric lamps of heading
8513; cinematographic sound recording, reproducing or re-recording apparatus (heading 8519); sound-heads (heading
8522); television cameras, digital cameras and video camera recorders (heading 8525); radar apparatus, radio navigational
aid apparatus and radio remote control apparatus (heading 8526); connectors for optical fibers, optical fiber bundles and
cables (heading 8536); numerical control apparatus (heading 8537); sealed beam lamp units of heading 8539; optical fiber
cables of heading 8544;
(ij) Searchlights or spotlights of heading 9405;
(k) Articles of chapter 95;
(l) Monopods, bipods, tripods and similar articles, of heading 9620;
(m) Capacity measures, which are to be classified according to their constituent material; or
(n) Spools, reels or similar supports (which are to be classified according to their constituent material, for example, in heading
3923 or section XV).
2. Subject to note 1 above, parts and accessories for machines, apparatus, instruments or articles of this chapter are to be classified
according to the following rules:
(a) Parts and accessories which are goods included in any of the headings of this chapter or of chapter 84, 85 or 91 (other than
heading 8487, 8548 or 9033) are in all cases to be classified in their respective headings;
(b) Other parts and accessories, if suitable for use solely or principally with a particular kind of machine, instrument or apparatus,
or with a number of machines, instruments or apparatus of the same heading (including a machine, instrument or apparatus
of heading 9010, 9013 or 9031) are to be classified with the machines, instruments or apparatus of that kind;
(c) All other parts and accessories are to be classified in heading 9033.
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Revision 29 (2025)
Annotated for Statistical Reporting Purposes
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Notes (con.)
3. The provisions of notes 3 and 4 to section XVI apply also to this chapter.
4. Heading 9005 does not apply to telescopic sights for fitting to arms, periscopic telescopes for fitting to submarines or tanks, or
to telescopes for machines, appliances, instruments or apparatus of this chapter or section XVI; such telescopic sights and
telescopes are to be classified in heading 9013.
5. Measuring or checking optical instruments, appliances or machines which, but for this note, could be classified both in heading
9013 and in heading 9031 are to be classified in heading 9031.
6. For the purposes of heading 9021, the expression “orthopedic appliances” means appliances for:
(a) Preventing or correcting bodily deformities; or
(b) Supporting or holding parts of the body following an illness, operation or injury.
Orthopedic appliances include footwear and special insoles designed to correct orthopedic conditions, provided that they are
either (1) made to measure or (2) mass-produced, entered singly and not in pairs and designed to fit either foot equally.
7. Heading 9032 applies only to:
(a) Instruments and apparatus for automatically controlling the flow, level, pressure or other variables of liquids or gases, or for
automatically controlling temperature, whether or not their operation depends on an electrical phenomenon which varies
according to the factor to be automatically controlled, which are designed to bring this factor to, and maintain it at, a desired
value, stabilized against disturbances, by constantly or periodically measuring its actual value; and
(b) Automatic regulators of electrical quantities, and instruments or apparatus for automatically controlling non-electrical quantities
the operation of which depends on an electrical phenomenon varying according to the factor to be controlled, which are
designed to bring this factor to, and maintain it at, a desired value, stabilized against disturbances, by constantly or periodically
measuring its actual value.
Additional U.S. Notes
1. For the purposes of headings 9001 and 9002, the term "opticallyworked" refers to glass the surface of which has been ground
or polished in order to produce the required optical properties.
2. For the purposes of this chapter, the term "electrical" when used in reference to instruments, appliances, apparatus and machines,
refers to those articles the operation of which depends on an electrical phenomenon which varies according to the factor to be
ascertained.
3. For the purposes of this chapter, the terms "optical appliances"and"optical instruments" refer only to those appliances and
instruments which incorporate one or more optical elements, but do not include any appliances or instruments in which the
incorporated optical element or elements are solely for viewing a scale or for some other subsidiary purpose.
4. For the purposes of this chapter, the term "printed circuit assembly"means goods consisting of one or more printed circuits of
heading 8534 with one or more active elements assembled thereon, with or without passive elements. For the purposes of this
note,"active elements" means diodes, transistors and similar semiconductor devices, whether or not photosensitive, of heading
8541, and integrated circuits of heading 8542.
Statistical Notes
1. For statistical reporting purposes under subheading 9001.10, the unit of quantity "fiber m", as it pertains to optical fiber bundles
and cables, is determined by multiplying the number of individual fibers contained therein by the length in meters.
2. For the purposes of statistical reporting number 9025.19.8010, “clinical infrared thermometers” are devices designed to be used
to check the body temperatures of humans and animals.
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Revision 29 (2025)
Annotated for Statistical Reporting Purposes
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