General Interpretative Rule 2
General Interpretative Rule 2 (a) states:
- “Any reference in a heading to an article shall be taken to include a reference to that article incomplete or unfinished, provided that, as presented, the incomplete or unfinished article has the essential character of the complete or finished article. It shall also be taken to include a reference to that article complete or finished (or falling to be classified as complete or finished by virtue of this rule), presented unassembled or disassembled.”
- GIR 2(a) focuses on the classification of “incomplete or unfinished articles” and “complete or finished articles but presented unassembled or disassembled”. An article that is incomplete or unfinished is still classified as if it were complete or finished, if it has the essential character of the complete or finished article.
General Interpretative Rule 2 (b) states:
- Any reference in a heading to a material or substance shall be taken to include a reference to mixtures or combinations of that material or substance with other materials or substances. Any reference to goods of a given material or substance shall be taken to include a reference to goods consisting wholly or partly of such materials or substance. The classification of goods consisting of more than one material or substance shall be according to the principles of Rule 3.
- GIR 2(b) concerns mixtures and combination of materials or substances, and goods consisting of two or more materials or substances. The headings to which GIR 2 (b) refers are headings in which there is a reference to a material or substance (e.g., heading 05.07 (ivory), and headings in which there is a reference to goods of a given material or substance (e.g. heading 45.03 (articles of natural cork). The Rule applies only if the headings or the Sections or the Chapter Notes do not otherwise require. For example, since the terms of heading 39.20 reads “Other plates, sheets not reinforced, or similarly combined with other material”, the Rule does not apply.