5105.40.00.00 - Coarse animal hair, carded or combed

This HTS category, 5105.40.00.00, specifically covers coarse animal hair that has undergone carding or combing. Carding is a process that disentangles and aligns fibers, while combing further refines this alignment, producing a more uniform strand. "Coarse animal hair" in this context refers to fibers from animals such as goats (excluding cashmere, mohair, angora, camel, alpaca, llama, vicuña), cattle, horses, or other animals, characterized by a generally coarser diameter and less crimp compared to fine animal hairs. The key is that the material is in a processed state, either carded or combed, but not yet spun into yarn or woven into fabric.

This classification is distinct from its sibling, 5105.10.00.00, which is dedicated to carded wool. While both involve carding, this current category specifically addresses *coarse animal hair*, whereas 5105.10.00.00 is exclusively for wool. The category "Wool tops and other combed wool" further distinguishes itself by focusing on the product of combing specifically for wool, often resulting in a more refined and organized fiber structure than might be achieved with coarser animal hairs. Similarly, "Fine animal hair, carded or combed" segregates these processed fibers based on their fineness, which is a crucial distinguishing factor in textile raw materials.

As a leaf node, 5105.40.00.00 does not have further subdivisions. Therefore, its classification relies on accurately identifying the material as coarse animal hair and confirming it has undergone either carding or combing, but not spinning or weaving. Examples of goods falling under this heading would include bales of carded goat hair (excluding cashmere), or combed horsehair intended for further processing. The absence of subcategories means that all forms of carded or combed coarse animal hair, regardless of specific processing techniques beyond these initial steps, are consolidated here.