The US has maintained the additional duties on cargo tires from China

Additional tariffs on the import of truck and bus tires from China will remain in force, reports MTD, noting that the preservation of anti-dumping and countervailing duties was voted on by the International Trade Commission (ITC), which stated that if they were abolished, "it would likely harm the domestic tire industry".

Increased tariffs on Chinese truck tires were established in January 2019, and although such decisions usually need to be confirmed every year, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) changed the procedure, and a repeated investigation was conducted only this year. Initially, the DOC made a decision to increase duties in 2017, but then the ITC voted against it. After that, the United Steelworkers (USW) intervened, and the case was referred to the Court of International Trade, and in 2019, the ITC changed its mind and the tariffs were approved.

According to the DOC, if in 2015 (when the USW filed a petition to restrict tire imports) the supply of truck and bus tires from China was 8.5 million units, then in 2018 it was 9.22 million units. After the introduction of new duties, imports fell to 3.24 million tires in 2019 and to 1.1 million tires in 2021 (in 2022, supplies grew to 1.76 million tires).

The DOC notes that the overall import volumes exceed the 2018 level, and Chinese tire supplies have decreased significantly and account for less than 20% of the 2015 figures, when the petition was filed. For this reason, the ministry believes that in the event of a tariff abolition, dumping will most likely continue, and the dumping margin will be up to 22.57%.

Countervailing duties will range from 23.92% for Double Coin to 66.28% for Guizhou Tyre. For all other companies, the tariff is set at 45.1%.