The duties on the engines bolted under American riding mowers will run another five years, and the notice continuing them is mostly an argument about what counts as an engine

Six days after the order was published in 2021, Commerce had to correct its own title. The document had said the duties covered engines between 25cc and 999cc, when the number it meant was 225cc, and the fix ran in the Federal Register on 10 March that year.

That order, and the countervailing duty order alongside it, will now run for another five years. Commerce filed a notice of continuation on 19 August, effective 11 August, after the first sunset review of both. The International Trade Commission determined that revocation would likely lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury to an American industry, and Commerce determined that revocation would likely lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping and countervailable subsidies. Customs keeps collecting cash deposits at the rates in force at the time of entry.

The next review is already scheduled in outline. Commerce intends to start it no later than thirty days before the fifth anniversary of the Commission's determination.

The engines in question

The scope is narrower than "small engines" and wider than it first reads. The covered goods are spark-ignited, non-road, vertical shaft engines with a displacement of at least 225 cubic centimetres and no more than 999, air cooled, single or multiple cylinder, typically producing between 6.7 and 42 kilowatts. The notice says they are primarily for riding lawn mowers and zero-turn mowers, and adds tow-behind brush mowers, grinders and vertical shaft generators as other homes for the same hardware.

Then it does the thing these notices exist to do, which is to close the exits.

An unfinished engine, for duty purposes, is a subassembly of crankcase, crankshaft, camshaft, pistons and connecting rods. Ship those together and it is an engine, assembled or not, and whether or not an oil pan, a manifold, cylinder heads, a valve train or valve covers travel with them. Fitting spark plugs into the head does not change it. Adding ignition modules or coils does not change it. And adding any other component in a third country, one not on the list that makes up the subassembly, does not remove the engine from the scope either.

The certification trap

The paragraph worth reading twice is the one about the Environmental Protection Agency.

Engines of this type normally have to be certified under 40 CFR part 1054, the standard for small non-road spark-ignition engines. An importer might reasonably assume that certification and scope travel together. They do not. The notice states that an engine which meets the physical description but is not certified under part 1054, and is not certified under any other part of subchapter U, is not excluded from the scope. An engine certified under part 1054 and under other parts at the same time stays subject as well.

Six tariff lines are listed, three for engines, one for subassemblies and two more the goods may enter under. The notice says plainly that the written description governs and the tariff numbers are there for convenience.