4909 00 — Printed or illustrated postcards; printed cards bearing personal greetings, messages or announcements, whether or not illustrated, with or without envelopes or trimmings

4909 Printed or illustrated postcards; printed cards bearing greetings, messages or announcements, whether or not illustrated, with or without envelopes, with or without trimmings

This heading covers: (i) printed or illustrated postcards, whether used for personal, commercial or advertising purposes; and (ii) cards bearing printed greetings, messages or announcements, for any occasion. Such printed cards may be illustrated or not, and may be with or without envelopes or trimmings. These articles include: (1) Picture postcards, i.e., cards on which are printed indications of their use as postcards and on which all or most of one side is devoted to a pictorial representation of any kind. Similar articles, but without such indications of use, fall in heading 4911 as pictures. Picture postcards may be in sheets or in booklet form. Printed postcards in which the pictorial matter is not the main feature (e.g., certain postcards with advertising

Materials or small pictures also fall into this heading. However, this heading does not include postcards bearing printed or embossed stamps (heading 4907). Simple postcards in which the printed material is immaterial in relation to their primary purpose are also excluded (heading 4817). (2) Christmas, New Year, birthday cards or similar cards. They may be in the form of art postcards or consist of two or more folded sheets bonded together, with one side or more dedicated to the image. The term “similar cards” refers to cards used to announce birthdays or christenings or to convey greetings or thanks. Printed cards can be with decorations such as ribbons, cords, brushes and embroidery, or with artistic signs such as large-format watering types, and can also be decorated with glass powder, etc. The articles of this heading are sometimes printed on materials other than paper, such as plastic or gelatin. This heading does not cover: (a) art cards presented in the form of children's picture books, drawing books or colouring books (heading 4903); (b) Christmas or New Year's cards, etc. in the form of calendars (heading 4910).

Notes

Machine translation. The original is the Russian text of the EAEU tariff, and customs goes by it; this translation is for understanding only and has no legal force.

1. This group does not include:

(a) photographic negatives or positives on a transparent basis (Chapter 37);

(b) relief geographical maps, plans or globes, whether printed or unprinted (heading 9023);

(c) playing cards or other goods of Chapter 95; or

(d) the originals of engravings, prints or lithographs (heading 9702), postage or duty stamps, postage stamps including the first day of cancellation, post office supplies or similar items of heading 9704, antiques over 100 years old or other articles of Chapter 97.

2. In Chapter 49, the term “printed” also applies to materials reproduced on multiplication machines obtained by a computer, as well as by embossing, photographing, photocopying, thermal copying or typing.

3. Newspapers, magazines and other periodicals in bounds other than paper and the filing of newspapers, magazines or other periodicals of more than one copy under a single cover are classified in heading 4901 regardless of whether they contain advertising material.

4. Heading 4901 also includes:

(a) collections of printed reproductions, such as works of art or drawings with explanatory text, with numbered pages in a form suitable for brochure in one or more volumes;

(b) illustrated appendices accompanying and supplementing the intertwined volumes; and

(c) printed parts of books or pamphlets in the form of selected or separate sheets or signatures constituting all or part of the work and intended for binding.

However, reproductions of paintings or illustrations without explanatory text in the form of signatures or separate sheets are classified in heading 4911.

5. Subject to note 3 to this chapter, heading 4901 does not include publications which are essentially devoted to advertising (e.g. brochures, brochures, leaflets, trade catalogues, yearbooks published by trade associations, tourist brochures). Such publications are classified in heading 4911.

6. For the purpose of heading 4903, the term “picture books” means children’s books in which pictures are of primary interest and the text is auxiliary.