Mobile Home Skirting Spikes Subject to China Nails Duties, Commerce Says

Mobile home skirting spikes imported by Roy G. Evans Co. are subject to antidumping duties on steel nails from China (A-570-909), the Commerce Department said in a scope ruling issued Nov. 5. Though Roy G. Evans, which does business as EVCO, argued that the spikes are imported under a tariff subheading not listed in the scope of the order, Commerce noted that the Harmonized Tariff Schedule numbers in the scope are not exhaustive, and that the merchandise has the physical characteristics of subject nails.

The spikes are used to root mobile home skirting to the ground. They are imported either alone or in a “skirting kit” that also includes 3/4 inch screws. Per a CBP ruling, EVCO imports the spikes under tariff subheading 7326.90.8688, which provides for “other articles of iron or steel, other, other, other, other, other.”

Commerce pointed to its standard language in the scopes of antidumping and countervailing duty orders that the subheadings in scope descriptions “are provided for convenience and customs purposes,” and that the written portion of the scope is “dispositive.” It said that the spikes imported by EVCO “are seven inches in shaft length, made from steel, loosely collated, have a head, shank, and point, all of which are physical descriptions of a nail that is covered by the scope language.”

However, while the spikes meet the terms of the scope, the screws imported in EVCO’s skirting kits do not. Commerce “will instruct CBP that only the subject skirting spikes are subject to duties under the Order.”