Timing Chains Are Engine Parts, Not Vehicle Parts, CBP Says
Timing chain guides used in automotive engines are properly classified in Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 8409 as parts for use in engines rather than in heading 8708 as parts for motor vehicles, CBP said in a recently released ruling. The ruling came in response to a request for further review of a denied protest on behalf of US Tsubaki Holdings. Tsubaki entered three models of timing chain guides under heading 8409 but CBP liquidated the entries as parts of vehicles.
In comparing the two possible classifications, CBP noted that the expressions "parts" and "parts and accessories" do not apply to machines or apparatus of headings 8401 to 8479, or parts thereof, other than the radiators for the articles of Section XVII, which includes Chapter 87. Therefore, CBP found that it must first determine whether the timing chain guide is classified under heading 8409 as a part of an engine before it can classify the timing chain guide under heading 8708.
The courts have fashioned two distinct tests for determining whether a particular item qualifies as a "part" for tariff classification purposes, since the term is not defined in the tariff schedule. In the first test, an item qualifies as a part "only if it can be described as an 'integral, constituent, or component part, without which the article to which it is to be joined, could not function as such article.'” The second test defines a part as “'dedicated solely for use with a particular article' and, 'when applied to that use ... meets the Willoughby test,” which refers to the first test.
For tariff purposes, a spark-ignition internal combustion engine of heading 8407 consists only of certain components that generally consist of a cylinder, piston, connecting-rod, crankshaft, flywheel, inlet and exhaust valves. In order for an engine to function, CBP said, the piston compresses a mixture of air and fuel in the cylinder and the fuel mixture ignites inside the cylinder. Therefore, parts of heading 8407 engines are limited to the components that directly contribute to the function of internal combustion.
If the timing chain does not function properly, power cannot be transferred to the camshafts in the ratio required and the engine valves will not open and close properly, causing the engine to fail. Without the timing chain guide, the timing chain, and therefore the engine, cannot properly function. Therefore, CBP found that timing chain guides are "parts" of engines and properly classified in subheading 8409.91.50, dutiable at 2.5%, and that Tsubaki's protest is to be granted.