The Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration is scheduled to issue its final determination June 12 on whether countervailing and antidumping duties should be levied on passenger and light truck tires imported from China.

The agency will issue a fact sheet outlining the reasons for its decisions, according to a Commerce spokesperson.

The United Steelworkers (USW) union filed petitions with the International Trade Commission (ITC) in June 2014, requesting relief from an alleged upsurge of Chinese tire imports under Sections 701 and 731 of the Trade Act.

The USW had obtained tariff relief under Section 421 of the Trade Act between September 2009 and September 2012, but Chinese tire makers and their representatives flooded the market with underpriced tire imports as soon as the tariffs lapsed, the USW claimed.

Since then, Commerce has found preliminary countervailing duty margins of between 11.74 and 81.29 percent, and antidumping duty margins of between 12.02 and 27.72 percent.

If Commerce makes affirmative final determinations in the duties cases, the ITC will make a final decision in July on whether the domestic tire industry has been materially injured by Chinese imports. An affirmative ITC decision would make the duties official for the next five years.

Source: tirebusiness.com