Demo lenses are demonstration lenses. These are plastic pieces that imitate prescription eyewear lenses. Sometimes the demo lenses are tinted. Often eyewear frames are shown to the retail customer with demo lenses in the frame, in order to give the buyer a better idea of how the frames will look with prescription optical lenses mounted in the frame. Demo lenses have no optical properties. After the retail customer selects their frames, the demo lenses will be removed and optical lenses will be mounted in the frame.
When frames are imported with demo lenses, the frames with demo lenses are classified in heading 9003, HTSUS, as frames and mountings for spectacles, goggles or the like. When demo lenses are imported separately, they are not classified as parts of the frames. Also, they are not classified as accessories to the frames because heading 9003, HTSUS, has no accessory provision. Accordingly, when plastic demo lenses are imported separately, they classified in chapter 39, HTSUS, as articles of plastic.