Customs Tariff 

Chapter 90 

Optical, Photographic, Cinematographic, Measuring, Checking, Precision, Medical or Surgical Instruments and Apparatus; Parts and Accessories Thereof

1. This Chapter does not cover:
(a) Articles of a kind used in machines, appliances or for other technical uses, of vulcanised rubber other than hard rubber (heading 40.16), of leather or of composition leather (heading 4205) or of textile material (heading 59.11);

(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 69.03; ceramic wares for laboratory, chemical or other technical uses, of heading 69.09;

(d) Glass mirrors, not optically worked, of heading 70.09, or mirrors of base metal or of precious metal, not being optical elements (heading 83.06 or Chapter 71);

(e) Goods of heading 70.07, 70.08, 70.11, 70.14, 70.15 or 70.17;

(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);

(g) Pumps incorporating measuring devices, of heading 84.13; weight-operated counting and checking machinery, or separately presented weights for balances (heading 84.23); lifting or handling machinery (headings 84.25 to 84.28); paper or paperboard cutting machines of all kinds (heading 84.41); fittings for adjusting work or tools on machine-tools, of heading 84.66, 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 84.70); valves or other appliances of heading 8481; machines and apparatus (including apparatus for the projection or drawing of circuit patterns on sensitised 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 or radio remote control apparatus (heading 8526); connectors for optical fibres, optical fibre bundles or cables (heading 8536); numerical control apparatus of heading 8537; sealed beam lamp units of heading 8539; optical fibre cables of heading 8544;

(i) Searchlights or spotlights of heading 94.05;

(k) Articles of Chapter 95;

(l) Capacity measures, which are to be classified according to their constituent material; or

(m) Spools, reels or similar supports (which are to be classified according to their constituent material, for example, in heading 39.23 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 90.10, 90.13 or 90.31) 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 90.33.

3. The provisions of Notes 3 and 4 to Section XVI apply also to this Chapter.

4. Heading 90.05 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 90.13.

5. Measuring or checking optical instruments, appliances or machines which, but for this Note, could be classified both in heading 90.13 and in heading 90.31 are to be classified in heading 90.31.

6. For the purposes of heading 90.21, the expression "orthopaedic appliances" means appliances for:
- Preventing or correcting bodily deformities; or
- Supporting or holding parts of the body following an illness, operation or injury.

Orthopaedic appliances include footwear and special insoles designed to correct orthopaedic conditions, provided that they are either (1) made to measure or (2) mass-produced, presented singly and not in pairs and designed to fit either foot equally.

7. Heading 90.32 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, stabilised 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, stabilised against disturbances, by constantly or periodically measuring its actual value.