The United States International Trade Commission said the importation of tires from countries such as Korea, Taiwan and Thailand are "materially injuring" U.S. tire manufacturers. The ITC also found in its analysis of the domestic tire market that subsidized passenger car tires from Vietnam are also negatively affecting domestic tire makers.
As a response to the ITC's analysis, the Commerce Department announced that it will be imposing antidumping duties on imports from Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. The agency will also impose a countervailing duty order on imports of tires from Vietnam.
The ITC said it voted to terminate anti-dumping duties for Vietnam imports. The agency said the negative effects of the tire products from the country sold in the U.S. at less than fair value "are negligible."
The U.S. Commerce Department ordered an investigation into the state of the domestic tire market last year. It wanted to take a close look at the effects of imported products after it received a petition filed by the United Steelworkers, a union representing thousands of workers at U.S. tire manufacturing plants.
In 2015, the union was able to force the government to impose measures to curb tire imports from China. Since then, Chinese tire imports have decreased dramatically.
According to the USW, the U.S. imported around $4.4 billion worth of tires from Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam last year. The union said tire imports have risen by more than 20% since 2017 to about 85.2 million tires in 2019.
The USW represents workers of U.S. tire manufacturing plants owned by brands such as Goodyear, Michelin, Sumitomo and Yokohama.
The government of Taiwan had rejected the ITC's findings and has urged the courts to "render a negative final jury determination." In its 13-page written submission to the ITC, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office argued that tire imports from the nation are not causing material injury or threatening the domestic U.S. tire industry.
"This attenuated competition supports a finding that there is no price effect from imports from Taiwan on the price of the domestic product. Inventory levels in Taiwan have been stable and do not show a volume that could injure the U.S. industry," the submission said.
