The United Steelworkers (USW) union has expressed its disappointment in the US Department of Commerce’s preliminary determination regarding the introduction of anti-dumping duties for OTR tyres imported from India. USW international president Leo W. Gerard notes that the Department of Commerce announced a negative preliminary determination for anti-dumping duties in response to the petition filed by the USW and Titan International earlier this year.
The United States International Trade Commission has launched an investigation into dumping allegations related to Chinese-produced truck and bus tyres sold in the US market. The ITC released information on its action on 29 January; the decision to commence preliminary anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations follows the lodging of a petition by the United Steelworkers union.
Titan International has filed petitions with the US International Trade Commission and the US Department of Commerce for relief from imports of off-road tyres from China, India, and Sri Lanka. The petitions were filed jointly with the United Steelworkers union and allege that imports from China and India are being dumped in the US market in violation of international trade agreements and that imports from all three countries are benefitting from improper government subsidies.
The US Department of Commerce will issue antidumping and countervailing duty orders on certain passenger car and light truck tyres imported from China after a three-to-three vote by the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) determined the domestic tyre industry is “materially injured” by imports of “subsidised” Chinese tyres that are sold in the USA at “less than fair value.”
Antidumping duties of up to 87.99 per cent will be levied on passenger car and light truck tyres imported from China into the United States, the US Department of Commerce determined yesterday. Its preliminary determination was based on findings that some imports of passenger car and light truck tyres from China were sold in the US at dumping margins ranging from 19.17 per cent to 87.99 per cent.
When you add the standard preliminary countervailing charge of 15.69 per cent to the predicted anti-dumping tariff of between 25 and 35 per cent, it means we are looking a total potential tariff load in the region o 40 to 50 per cent. Writing in an investor’s note published immediately after the Department of Commerce announcement, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst Robert Higginbotham certainly suggested as much: “We believe in the middle to upper end of expectations. Countervailing typically the smaller of the two pieces (the other being antidumping); today’s decision [24 November] implies a total tariff in the range of 45-50 per cent.
The US Commerce Department (USDOC) has moved to impose import tariffs on tyres manufactured in China and imported into the US. The USDOC has also agreed to initiate work on an additional nine subsidy programs identified by the USW. The preliminary finding suggested that Chinese-made tyres in this category are unfairly subsidized and should be subject to countervailing duties of 17.7 per cent and 81.3 per cent. The precise percentage depends on the manufacturer in question, but the standard rate is reportedly 15.69 per cent. This is the second round of passenger vehicle and light truck duties since the millennium. The first round ran from 2009 to 2011 and ranged from 35 to 25 per cent.
This morning the US International Trade Commission announced that its investigation has found “reasonable indication that an industry in the United States is materially injured or threatened with material injury by reason of imports from China of certain passenger vehicle and light truck tyres”.
The USW has petitioned for and received an extension from the US Department of Commerce, pushing back to November the deadline for completion of the preliminary determination on its antidumping and countervailing duty complaint targeting China-made consumer tyres imported into the US, Tire Review reports.
Moves by United States trade authorities towards reintroducing duties on certain Chinese tyres have been applauded by the union representing many US tyre industry workers, yet China says this not only contradicts international trade rules and national law, but any new antidumping or countervailing duties that emerge from current investigations will also fail to achieve their intended result.
The US Department of Commerce Department is proceeding with the US United Steelworker’s case against Chinese tyre imports into America. The union is pushing for new import duties similar to those that were introduced in 2009 and has hailed the news that the case is continuing and as a significant step forward in the process.
The global tyre industry is keeping a watchful eye on the US International Trade Commission, which is set to make a preliminary decision on whether or not to enforce import duties on tyres produced in China. Preliminary arguments for and against this were made before the body on 24 June and since then the US Tire Industry Association (TIA) has also weighed in. However, ITC won’t make its initial ruling till 8 July.
Commenting on the U.S. International Trade Commission’s extension of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on certain off-the-road tyres produced in China, the United Steelworkers union says the decision to continue with the 2008-introduced tariffs is a “good outcome to provide job security for the hundreds of tyre workers who make these same tyre products at Titan Bridgestone-Firestone and Goodyear factories in Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Kansas and New York.”
According to an unconfirmed report, the United Steelworkers union has reached an agreement with Cooper Tire & Rubber regarding labour contracts at Cooper’s Findlay, Ohio and Texarkana, Arkansas plants. Financial website The Street wrote on 12 December that “a source close to the matter” said the USW has “worked out tentative agreements with Cooper based on potential outcomes.”
Writing on Reuters Breakingviews, corporate finance columnist Una Galani draws attention to how financial institutions contributed towards the current tensions between Apollo Tyres and Cooper Tire & Rubber. She opines that Apollo’s move to renegotiate its Cooper acquisition deal and seek a buying price less than the US$2.5 billion originally offered was pushed by attempts from Apollo’s lenders to extricate themselves from the takeover agreement.
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