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Customs Director needs Composition and HS Code for Tinplates

Dear Sir/Madam,

One of the industrialists in Kabul who has got a big Vegetable Gee and Soap making plant in Kabul, has imported the tinplates for making the tins/containers for their produced veg. oils.

please provide me the information concerning the composition of such tinplates as well as the HS Code.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

Abdul Satar Sarhal
Director Customs Laboratories - Kabul, Afghanistan
July 6, 2008

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This is a public forum Sir. Since that would be an official matter, public opinions are irrelevant. The questions have to be answered by the importing company through certificates, material safety data sheets (MSDS), etc. Your job, as Customs Laboratory, would be to confirm that the information is correct.
G. Marrufo-Mexico

Guillermo Marrufo
Monterrey, NL, Mexico
July 17, 2008

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July 17, 2008

Better not try that if you get pulled over by a cop when visiting the USA, Guillermo. It's not a real good idea to tell an official (or anybody, for that matter) what their job is :-)

I hope you don't take offense, Guillermo -- we disagree rarely. But:

Certainly we can refer Abdul to ITRI at http://www.itri.co.uk/ even if it is doubtful that any reader will directly send him the info he requested. There is nothing wrong with him asking for this as a matter of educating himself and his staff as to what tinplate generally is and what it's composition is supposed to be.

Suppose his country had a ban on importing oranges, and he opened a crate of fruit that was clearly labelled "Apples" and the certificates with it said that apples are a very juicy, zesty, orange colored, segmented fruit with white pits? Should he pass those "apples" because the paperwork fits it?

Or suppose the MSDS said the tin composition for these vegetable oil containers is 90/10 tin/lead? Should he pass that tinplate because it is as labeled? Abdul seems to be trying to make sure that his team understands what they are inspecting, and that's to the good.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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July 18, 2008

Lets forget for a moment about what the certificate may say. What if someone's opinion differs from that? What is he going to do? Coming from the director of an official national laboratory the posting sounds out of context to me. There's more involved than self-education here. If the man is doubtful I think his duty would be to make sure, not to gather opinions thru internet.
The above said with all due respect (just in case I will ever travel to Afghanistan and face him, ha ha!)
G. Marrufo-Mexico

Guillermo Marrufo
- Monterrey, Mexico

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Hi, again. I guess it depends on what you expect internet forums to achieve and how you think they should be used. I use them primarily as food for thought and for steering people in a promising direction.

If someone offers me the opinion that I should add a thousand gallons of H2SO4 to my ten thousand gallon tank, I'm certainly not going to do it; but I might well add 26.7 ml to my 267 ml Hull Cell to see the result.

Similarly, I would not expect people to accept an internet posting as to the proper composition of tinplate, but I think everyone profits if this thread could tell people what book contains that information, or what standards body regulates it.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
July , 2008