US Department of Commerce to Levy Tariffs on Chinese Truck Tires

The US Department of Commerce (DOC) has decided to proceed with imposition of tariffs on truck tires imported from China. The decision was made on the basis of the DOC’s findings that the Chinese government subsidizes the manufacture of tires for commercial trucks and buses to a major extent. Hence, these manufacturers are able to export and sell these tires in the United States at prices that are lower than those of tires manufactured locally. In order to protect the US tire industry, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) issued its preliminary ruling on June 28 that Chinese truck tires would be subjected to tariffs to the tune of up to 23.38%.

The DOC primarily relied on data supplied by two importers in order to calculate the tariff rates for all companies that ship commercial truck and bus tires to the United States; Double Coin Holdings Ltd. and Guizhou Tyre Co Ltd. The DOC will impose a tariff of 17.06% for imports by Double Coin, a tariff rate of 23.38% for those by Guizhou and a rate of 20.22%.on imports by all other companies from China.

These rates are likely to change after the dumping investigation is concluded. Currently, the DOC is still investigating whether tires imported from China are being dumped in the US market at prices that are below the cost of manufacturing. In the event that it is determined that this is true, anti-dumping tariffs are likely to be added to the countervailing duties. The DOC is scheduled to make a preliminary ruling in the case of the anti-dumping issue on August 26. The final verdict with regard to both the anti-dumping and countervailing investigations is to be declared on November 10, 2016.

One exporter of truck and bus tires from China was singled out by the DOC for “critical circumstances”. In the case of Guizhou Tyre Co. Ltd., the U.S. Customs and Border Protection will collect the duties retroactively for the period dating back to 90 days prior to the publication of the ruling regarding the countervailing tariffs in the Federal Register.

On June 15, the DOC had issued its preliminary rate of tariffs for OTR tires imported from India and Sri Lanka. The DOC had decided to impose on a retroactive basis a tariff of 2.9% on all OTR tires imported from Sri Lanka. When it comes to OTR imports from India, while tires from other manufacturers of OTR tires will be taxed at a rate of 6.17%, those from BKT (Balkrishna Industries) will be taxed at 4.7% and those from ATC Tires Pvt. Ltd, which is a subsidiary of the Alliance Tire Group will be taxed at 7.64%.