CBP Finds Country of Origin of Hard Drives Depends on Firmware

The country of origin for notebook computer hard disk drives (HDDs) for U.S. government procurement purposes is largely dependent on how the firmware is installed, CBP said in a final determination (here). CBP considered two production scenarios in the determination for Seagate Technology. "For the first scenario, we find that the country of origin of the HDDs will be the country where the firmware is largely written and installed onto the HDDs," either Singapore or South Korea, depending on the specific product, CBP said. "However, in the second scenario, the HDDs are assembled in one country, the firmware is largely written in another country, and downloaded in a third country, the United States. While counsel contends that the country of origin of the HDDs should similarly be the country where the firmware is downloaded because the HDD cannot function without the firmware being installed, that is not the correct test used to determine the country of origin of a product. The country of origin of a product is determined based on where the last substantial transformation occurs." Where the firmware is written in one country and installed in another, that is not the place where the firmware was installed. Instead, CBP said the last substantial transformation -- and therefore the country of origin -- occurs where the HDD is assembled, in a location that's redacted in the document.