CBP Determines U.S. as Country of Origin for Certain Hard Disk Drives, Self-Encrypting Drives
On Aug. 14, CBP published a final determination concluding that the U.S. was the country of origin for certain hard disk drives (HDDs) and self-encrypting drives (SEDs) by Seagate Technology. The three lines of Seagate’s HDDs are designed in the U.S. and assembled from components manufactured by Seagate outside the U.S. or obtained from Asian suppliers, CBP said. The fully assembled HDDs are then imported into the U.S., but cannot function as storage media in their imported condition, according to information submitted by Seagate. The imported HDDs are “unblocked and programmed with two types of firmware” in the U.S., which makes the HDD “a fully functional, generic storage device,” CBP said. CBP added that about 25 percent of generic HDDs are then reformatted with customer security requirements developed within the U.S., transforming the generic HDDs to SEDs.
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Based on the facts presented, CBP ruled that components for Seagate’s HDDs and SEDs may be manufactured outside the U.S. or obtained from Asian suppliers, but are substantially transformed through programming operations performed in the U.S. using U.S.-origin firmware. Pursuant to the rule of origin, CBP concluded that the U.S. was the country of origin for purposes of U.S. government procurement.