US Outlines Duties on OTR Tyre Imports

The US Department of Commerce has set in place preliminary anti-dumping duties of up to 210 per cent on Chinese made OTR tyres allegedly sold in the US at artificially low prices. These duties were implemented on February 6, and tyres thereby now become the sixth Chinese product to fall foul of US anti-dumping duties since the start of 2008.

“Price distortion by Chinese exporters puts American manufacturers at an unfair disadvantage,” said David Spooner, assistant secretary of commerce for Import Administration, in a statement announcing the action. “In an effort to encourage a healthy economic environment and to strive to maintain a strong and fair relationship with our trading partners, the administration will continue its commitment to aggressively enforce America’s trade remedy laws.”

The action comes in response to complaints raised by Titan Tire and several other parties, who argued the unfairness of the subsidies China has given to some OTR manufacturers. Last December the Department of Commerce took a first step to counter their effects by implementing preliminary countervailing duties, which ranged from 2.38 to 6.59 per cent. The duties outlined on February 6 are much higher.

The Department set a 10.98 per cent duty on imports from Tianjin United Tire & Rubber International; 16.35 per cent on Guizhou Tire; 19.73 per cent on Hebei Starbright Tire; and 51.81 per cent on Xuzhou Xugong Tyre. At least 40 other Chinese tyre producers and exporters now face a preliminary anti-dumping duty of 24.75 per cent, while an indeterminate number of other companies now face a hefty China-wide duty of 210.48 per cent. A cash deposit or bond based on the preliminary rates will be collected until the Department of Commerce makes its final decision on anti-dumping duties towards the end of June.

Imports of the tyres included under this umbrella of duties rose from 11.2 million in 2004 to almost 15 million in 2006.