Titan Welcomes Ruling on Chinese OTR Tyres

For Titan International, the US Department of Commerce’s decision to impose duties on new OTR tyres from China deemed to be benefiting from government subsidies comes as welcome news. “Today’s (December 13) determination sends a signal to producers in China that they have to start playing by the rules of game just like everyone else,” said Titan chairman and CEO Maurice M. Taylor. “Tyre producers in China benefit from government subsidies that give them an illegitimate advantage in our market, and it is the US industry and American workers who have suffered as a result. Hopefully today’s decision will start to counteract the damage being done by China’s unfair subsidies.

“While Titan believes that these preliminary margins are lower than the full amount of subsidisation benefiting OTR producers in China, we are hopeful that more accurate information on the full scope of subsidies will be collected as the investigation proceeds,” Taylor added. “We will be participating actively to see that the Department demands cooperative responses from the Government of China and Chinese tyre producers regarding subsidies to the industry, and we will advocate for the fair and effective administration of the law. Only by vigorously enforcing US trade laws against unfair imports can we start to level the playing field for the US tyre industry.”

The Department of Commerce’s determination in the countervailing duty investigation is separate from an ongoing antidumping investigation by the Department on OTR tyres from China. It will make a preliminary antidumping determination regarding OTR tyres from China in February. While the US government does not subsidise the country’s domestic tyre industry, other sectors receive regular support in the form of subsidies; agricultural subsidies in the US have become a contentious global issue in recent years.