Chinese tire makers mobilizing to fight U.S. tariffs

The China Rubber Industries Association (CRIA) is organizing Chinese tire makers for a meeting in the U.S. with local importers to discuss new U.S. duties on truck and bus tires.

A statement published by the association indirectly quotes CRIA vice chairman and secretary general Mary Xu as urging the industry to take action against the proposed tariffs on Chinese-made tires by the U.S. authorities.

“The outcome [will] be worse if Chinese tire makers don’t take active measures to defend themselves,” Ms. Xu said.

CRIA, she added, has gained experience from the previous passenger tire duties, “where we successfully removed the retroactive anti-dumping tariffs as well as excluded AUV tires from the investigation.”

In the previous round of tariffs, the U.S. trade committee’s final vote for passenger tires was 3 to 3 compared with 6 to 0 during preliminary determination.For truck and bus tires, in preliminary determination two out of the six committee members found no indications that the U.S. tire industry was being harmed by tires imported from China.

“A more optimistic situation,” Ms. Xu said. “The whole industry should stick together to fight for a better outcome.”

The U.S. Department of Commerce made an affirmative preliminary determination in the anti-dumping duty investigation of truck and bus tires imported from China on Aug. 29.

Commerce found a preliminary dumping rate of 20.87 percent against one of the two mandatory respondents in the investigation, Prinx Chengshan (Shandong) Tire Co. Ltd.

The other mandatory respondent, Double Coin Holdings Ltd., is not eligible for a separate rate and is part of the China-wide entity dumping rate of 22.57 percent.For all other producers and exporters in China, the agency determined a preliminary dumping rate of 22.57 percent. These producers and exporters failed to respond to Commerce’s requests for information, it said.

The United Steelworkers union filed petitions for anti-dumping and countervailing duties against Chinese truck and bus tires with the International Trade Commission Jan. 29.

Commerce initiated anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations Feb. 19, and the ITC voted 4-2 on March 11 that there was sufficient evidence of material injury to continue the investigation.