US trade court remands 2017 ITC ruling on Chinese truck/bus tires

The U.S. Court of International Trade (USCIT) has remanded the U.S. International Trade Commission's (ITC) 2017 negative injury determination on truck and bus tires from China.

The CIT's ruling, issued Nov. 1, means the ITC is ordered to reconsider an ITC ruling issued in February 2017 that the domestic truck and bus tire industry was not being "materially injured" by imports of tires from China.

The CIT ruling is in response to a complaint filed in April 2017 by the United Steelworkers (USW) union seeking judicial review of the ITC's negative determination.

The CIT ruled in favor of the USW in two of the four issues the USW raised in its complaint — pertaining to negative adverse price effects determination and negative threat determination — saying both are "not supported by substantial evidence."

Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., China Rubber Industry Association and China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals are listed as "defendant-intervenors."

The ITC has until Jan. 18, 2019, to file the administrative record on remand. Interested parties then will have until Feb. 4, 2019, to file comments on the remand redetermination and until March 6, 2019, to file replies to any comments submitted.

The CIT's ruling did not set a deadline for a final ruling.

In a statement issued Nov. 1, retreading advocacy group Retread Instead said it supports imposing tariffs, antidumping duties (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) on truck and bus tires imported into the U.S. from China because China is a "non-market economy" that dumps low quality non-retreadable truck tires into the U.S below fair market value, thus undermining the retread industry.

Retread Instead notes that the U.S. retreading and related industries employ more than 100,000 individuals whose jobs are threatened by the importation of non-retreadable truck and bus tires sold at less than fair market value.

Imports of medium truck/bus tires from China in 2017 were 6.49 million units, or 44.4 percent of all truck/bus tires. That total was down 15 percent from 2016.

The average declared customs value for a Chinese truck/bus tire imported in 2017 was $109.59, according to Department of Commerce data, or 28.4 percent below the average for all imports. By contrast, truck/bus tires imported from Canada were valued at $263.95.