Brazil investigating tyre dumping claims

In late May, Brazilian tyre industry association the ANIP (Associação Nacional da Indústria de Pneumáticos) reported that the country’s tyre production only increased four per cent during the first four months of 2013, despite a year-on-year growth of 17 per cent within the automotive industry between January and April. ANIP blamed this growth congruence on increased tyre imports, prompting association president Alberto Mayer to comment that many imported tyres were not legal imports, were of a quality below that set out by national accreditation body Inmetro, and avoided the end of life tyre handling fee charged on domestically-produced tyres.

The ANIP petitioned the Brazilian Secretariat of Foreign Trade (SECEX) of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC) to hold an anti-dumping investigation into passenger car tyres imported from South Korea, Thailand, South Africa, Russia, Taiwan and Japan. This began on 10 June, and producers, exporters and importers have been given 40 days to respond. 

Reporting the South African tyre industry’s reaction to claims that the country’s manufacturers are dumping tyres in Brazil at a 51.98 per cent discount, Johannesburg-based national daily Business Day quotes an unnamed industry expert, who opined that Brazil has been “quite aggressive” in protecting its manufacturing industry and implied its authorities didn’t always diligently follow World Trade Organization rules on the introduction of trade remedies. 

South African Tyre Manufacturers Conference CEO Etienne Human told Business Day that the claim only recently came to its attention. “The (conference’s) members are in the process of obtaining technical advice on how to deal with the Brazil antidumping application.” The newspaper added that requests by the South African Tyre Manufacturers Conference for discussions with the Brazilian authorities have apparently been unsuccessful.