Samsonite Corporation assembled luggage in Mexico for import into the United States. Many component parts used in the assembly process were made in the United States. Samsonite shipped steel strips from the United States to Mexico for use as luggage handles. When the strips left the United States, they were five inches long, straight, and bearing a coat of oil. Their value ranged from 95 cents to $1.26. In Mexico, the strips were bent by machine into a form resembling a square-sided letter C, cleaned, covered with a vinyl sheath, and riveted to plastic frame assemblies. The assemblies were then placed in, and fastened to, bags of vinyl to make soft luggage. On import into the United States, the Customs Service dutied the luggage, including the value of the steel strips at the rate of 20 percent ad valorem. The Court of International Trade upheld the government's contention that the steel strips had not been "exported in a condition ready for assembly" and that the process in Mexico amounted to a fabrication and more than a mere assembly. Samsonite appealed.
What was the court's holding with respect to the application of Section 9802 to Samsonite's steel strips?