Brazil extends Chinese truck tyre anti-dumping tariffs

On 4 May the Brazilian authorities passed a resolution calling for anti-dumping tariffs to be levied against Chinese-produced truck tyres with rims between 20 and 22.5 inches in diameter for the next five years.

Specifically, the Brazilian Câmara de Comércio de Exterior foreign chamber of commerce or Camex (as it is known) made the decision to collect the duty in the form of specific fixed US-dollar amounts per kilogram. These vary from manufacturer to manufacturer in a way reminiscent of the latest rounds of US anti-dumping tariffs levelled against Chinese-produced tyres.

Zhongce Rubber Group Co., Ltd. and Double Coin Holdings Ltd. come off lightest on the named list, with anti-dumping duties of US$1.12 per kilogram. However, the sliding scale goes up to $1.55/kilo for the highest named company (Shandong Bayi Tyre Manufacture Co., Ltd) and as a high as $2.59/kilo for all the companies not named on the list (see table for complete details).

The latest announcement follows a similar investigation in May 2008 and a string of similar investigations after. The original case looked the alleged dumping of radial construction tyres with rims between 20 and 22.5 inches in diameter as well as the same sized truck and bus products. Just like this time round, the accusation was that the low priced Chinese tyres were causing “injury to domestic industry”.

The subsequent ruling on 19 December 2008 found that anti-dumping measures were warranted and tariffs of US$1.33/kilo were applied to Brazilian imports of Chinese truck tyres for six months. By June 2009 Camex extended this for five years, naming many of the same firms and levelling comparable tariffs to the present round.

Four years later in June 2013 Brazil extended its investigation to include tyres originating from Republic of Korea, the Kingdom of Thailand, Republic of South Africa, Russian Federation and Chinese Taipei.

In June 2014 the extended investigation ended with the “affirmative determination of dumping and injury to domestic industry arising therefrom without application recommendation provisional”. Or in other words – more tariffs.

The latest defensive trade tariffs were initiated by the Brazilian National Tyre Industry Association – ANIP on 31 January 2014 on behalf of leading local tyre manufacturers Pirelli, Goodyear and Michelin. Interestingly, considering its own recent history in relation to import tariffs, the United States of America (USA) was used as a third country market economy to calculate the normal value of tyres. According to Camex, this is because – for research purposes – China is considered a “non-market economy”.

By June 2014 the powers that be were convinced the absence of tariffs would encourage dumping and so began proposing a review of the anti-dumping duty in force, which – as we have seen – finally came in force in May 2015.

 How Brazil is dealing with low-cost Chinese tyres

Source: Camex