U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a final determination concerning the country of origin of a software product that may be offered to the U.S. government. Any party-at-interest may seek judicial review of this determination by Oct. 8.
According to CBP, the item at issue is a software application that simplifies the migration of content from legacy systems into SharePoint and/or Microsoft 365. It has a browser-based interface and a fully distributed architecture that offers data transfer capabilities into those applications. Its migration sources can be executed separately but they function within a unified platform and are provided as an integrated package.
In ruling HQ H349776, noting that it has consistently held that conducting a software build (compiling source code into object code) results in a substantial transformation, CBP concludes that the country of origin of the software at issue is the U.S. because that is where a new article with a new name, character, and use is created: the name changes from source code to object code, the character changes from computer code to finished software, and the use changes from instructions to an executable program.
CBP issues country of origin advisory rulings and final determinations as to whether an article is or would be a product of a designated country or instrumentality for the purposes of granting waivers of certain “Buy American” restrictions in U.S. law or practice for products offered for sale to the U.S. government. For more information on BAA requirements or restrictions, please contact Mark Segrist or Mark Tallo.
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