Antidumping duties on Chinese OTR tires to continue for five more years

ERJ staff report (RN)

Washington − The US Commerce Department has officially confirmed that antidumping and countervailing duties on certain off-the-road tires made in China will continue for five more years, reported Miles Moore for Rubber News.

Published in the 4 February Federal Register, the confirmation from Commerce follows by a few weeks the unanimous decision by the International Trade Commission (ITC) that the US OTR tire industry continues to be threatened by material injury through the importation of Chinese OTR tires at less than fair value.

The duties have existed since August 2008, when Commerce and the ITC ruled in favour of Titan Tire Corp. and the United Steelworkers union in their petition against Chinese OTR tire manufacturers.

In August 2013, the ITC instituted a routine review of the duties, as mandated by the Uruguay Round Agreements Act.

Representatives of the Chinese tire makers failed to appear at a November 2013 hearing, making the renewal of the duties pro forma (‘as if’) at that point.

Although the Chinese tire makers did not appear at the meeting, they continue to fight in federal court a 2012 law allowing countervailing duties to be levied against goods from China and other non-market-economy countries.

Having lost last year before the US Court of International Trade, the Chinese tire makers filed an appeal 27 December before the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, arguing that the new law is unconstitutional.