Tyres Europe calls for ‘faster, more effective’ trade defence measures

Brussels – European tire industry association Tyres Europe has published a position paper calling for stronger trade defence measures to protects the bloc's tire industry.

The paper, published 5 Oct, noted that European tire manufacturing is a capital-intensive industry built on long-term investment and specialised skills.

The industry, said Tyres Europe, covers more than 70 plants, including retreading facilities, and around 20 R&D centres.

However, the association said, in 2024, around 398 million tires were newly fitted in the EU, around 40% of which were manufactured outside the EU.

Over the past two years, it added, nine tire plant closures have been announced in Europe, affecting more than 4,400 employees.

“Recent evidence illustrates why change is needed. In the case of passenger car and light truck tires from China, protection came too late,” said the position paper.

According to the Brussels-based group, the European Commission initiated its investigation of Chinese PCR tire imports in May 2025.

However, definitive duties took effect only 8 July 2026, “by which time imports had already shifted from China to other origins.”

For truck and bus tires, Tyres Europe said, the challenge emerged after measures were adopted.

Following the EU measures of 2018, China’s share of imports into the EU27 and the UK fell from 73% in 2017 to below 21% by 2019, explained the paper.

Meanwhile, the combined share of Thailand and Vietnam rose from less than 3% in 2017 to nearly 61% in the first five months of 2026.

“In both cases, trade flows shifted faster than the EU response, before measures were in place in the first case and after they were adopted in the second,” Tyres Europe said.

The paper, therefore, called on the European Commission to “act earlier and faster, keep measures effective after they are adopted, and respond as one system.”

This, it said, means “connecting monitoring, industry intelligence, investigation and enforcement from the first warning signal.”

Furthermore, it called for establishing “systematic post-measure monitoring and dialogue” with the EU industry.

The paper also urged the European authority to use trade defence, the ‘foreign subsidies regulation,’ investment screening and procurement in a coordinated way.

Click here to read the paper in full.