On July 14, after a 3-3 affirmative vote, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) issued its final decision confirming anti-dumping and countervailing duty rates on imports of Chinese passenger vehicle and light truck tires.
Department of Commerce investigations began in July last year at the request of the United Steelworkers Union (USW), after duties on similar Chinese tires expired in 2012. The case involves imports worth an estimated USD2.1bn in 2013, up from only USD968m in 2011.
The anti-dumping margins announced by Commerce on imports from China range from 14.35 percent to 87.99 percent, and the countervailing duties range from 20.73 percent to 100.77 percent, depending on the Chinese tire manufacturer.
Leo W Gerard, USW International President, welcomed the ITC's announcement. "Chinese tires captured 100 percent of growth in demand between 2012 and 2014," he said. "This resulted in serious harm to domestic industry and its workers as evidenced by the direct causal relationship between surging imports from China and contraction of production in individual US plants."
China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) expressed "strong dissatisfaction" over the US action, stating that it "will seriously damage the interests of Chinese enterprises involved in exports." It added that it had "repeatedly expressed its grave concern to the United States" about decisions that it considers unjustified and contrary to World Trade Organization rules.
Finally, the MOC urged the United States to "abide by international trade rules, use trade remedy measures prudently, and safeguard the multilateral trading system and Sino-US trade relations."

July 17, 2015
Source: Tax News