USW files anti-dumping petitions against Korea-, Taiwan-, Thailand- and Vietnam-made tyres

In the USA the United Steelworkers (USW) union has filed antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) petitions on dumped and subsidized passenger vehicle and light truck (PVLT) tyres with the Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission.

The petitions allege dumping margins as high as 195 per cent for Korea, 147 per cent for Taiwan, 217 per cent for Thailand, and 33 per cent for Vietnam. The petitions also detail numerous government subsidies benefitting Vietnamese tyre producers, including loans, tax breaks, and grants.

According to the USW, passenger-car and light-truck tyre imports into the USA from these four countries jumped 20 per cent between 2017 and 2019, reaching 85.3 million tyres, valued at $4.4 billion dollars, last year.

“This deluge of unfairly traded imports hurt our domestic industry and workers, including many USW members,” said USW International President Tom Conway. “Even though demand for PVLT tires increased, domestic producers were still forced to grapple with reduced market share, falling profits and lost jobs.”

“The only thing domestic producers should be worrying about right now is how to restart their operations safely,” Conway added. “Yet even as they face falling demand in the wake of this deadly disease, they’re still struggling with unfairly traded imports that have continued largely unabated. Our only chance to preserve thousands of good, family-sustaining jobs is to stem this tide.”

The USW is the largest North American union in tire manufacturing, representing workers at the following U.S. PVLT tire plants: Cooper Tire’s plants in Findlay, Ohio and Texarkana, Ark.; Goodyear’s plants in Fayetteville, N.C., Gadsden, Ala., and Topeka, Kan.; Michelin’s plants in Fort Wayne, Ind., and Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Sumitomo’s plant in Tonawanda, N.Y.; and Yokohama’s plant in Salem, Va.