US delays deadline for ruling on Asian-sourced tire duties 

Washington – The US Department of Commerce has agreed to delay until 29 Dec. the deadline for publishing its preliminary determination of whether passenger and light truck tires from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam are being sold in the US at less than fair value.

Commerce agreed to delay this deadline by 50 days in response to a request from the United Steelworkers (USW) union – the petitioner in this case – which said it believes Commerce would be unable to gather "complete responses and sufficient information" by the original deadline of  9 Nov due to the "complexity" of gathering the information needed.

By agreeing to delay the deadline for publishing its preliminary determination, Commerce also automatically pushes back the date for a final determination by the same number of days, or to mid-March from late January.

Commerce voted in June to initiate antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations in this matter. Commerce's decision was in response to petitions filed in early May by the USW, which claim tire producers from these regions are dumping their products in the US at margins ranging from as low as 5.48% (Vietnam) to as high as 217.5% (Thailand).

The value of P/LT tire imports in 2019 from the targeted countries and Taiwan were approximately valued as:

$1.96 billion (€1.67 billion) for Thailand;
$1.17 billion for South Korea;
$496.6 million for Vietnam; and
$373 million for Taiwan.

If Commerce determines preliminarily that dumping and/or unfair subsidisation is occurring, it will instruct US Customs and Border Protection to start collecting cash deposits from all US companies importing P/LT tires from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, as appropriate.

Final determinations by Commerce in these cases are scheduled for 9 Nov, for the CVD investigation, and 25 Jan 2021, for the AD investigation, but these dates may be extended, Commerce said.

If Commerce finds that products are not being dumped or unfairly subsidised, or the ITC finds in a final determination there is no injury to the US industry, then the investigations will be terminated and no duties will be applied.