On May 13, 2020, the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC (USW), a union on behalf of the domestic industry employees, filed petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) seeking antidumping (AD) duties on imports of passenger vehicle and light truck (PVLT) tires from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, and countervailing duties (CVD) on imports of PVLT tires from Vietnam. According to the petitions, PVLT tires from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam are being sold at less than fair value in the United States and PVLT tires from Vietnam benefit from countervailable subsidies, causing material injury and threatening further material injury to the U.S. industry if trade remedy duties are not imposed.

PVLT tires are new pneumatic tires, of rubber, with a passenger vehicle or light truck size designation that may be tube-type, tubeless, radial, or non-radial and may be intended for sale to original equipment manufacturers or the replacement market. Please contact us for a copy of the proposed scope of these investigations.

USW filed AD and CVD petitions on PVLT tires from China in 2014, resulting in Commerce’s imposition of AD and CVD orders in 2015 that remain in place today.  PVLT tires from China are also subject to an additional 25 percent China Section 301 duty the Trump administration imposed. In its CVD petition, the USW alleges that the Vietnamese PVLT tire producers are benefiting from approximately 19 subsidy programs.  In its AD petitions, USW alleges that the following antidumping duties should be imposed:

  • 21 to 147 percent on subject imports from Taiwan, depending on the calculation methodologies;
  • 106.4 to 217.5 percent on subject imports from Thailand;
  • 42.95 to 195.20 percent on subject imports from South Korea; and
  • 14.73 to 33.06 percent on subject imports from Vietnam.

Commerce will determine by June 3, 2020, whether to formally initiate the antidumping investigation and, if Commerce does, the ITC will decide 25 days after that whether there is a reasonable indication of existing material injury or threat of material injury to the domestic PVLT tires industry and whether the investigation should continue or terminate.

Thompson Hine LLP is monitoring this matter closely. For additional information or to obtain a copy of the petition, please contact us.