China Car and Truck Tires: Commerce Delays Investigations to Consider Industry Support
The Commerce Department is delaying its decision on whether to conduct antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China (A-570-016/C-570-017) in order to make sure the duties are supported by the U.S. tire industry. The United Steelworkers (USW) union requested the duties on June 3, and Commerce’s decision on whether the petition met industry support requirements was due June 23 (see 14060402). Commerce is extending that deadline until July 14 so it can poll domestic industry.
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Chinese trade associations requested the polling because of concerns that the petition overstated industry support. In order for Commerce to begin AD/CVD investigations, the petition for investigation has to be supported by companies and workers representing 25% of all production of the merchandise’s domestic counterpart. But if the companies and workers represent less than 50% of all production, Commerce has to survey domestic industry to make sure they’re across the 25% threshold. In this case, although the petition argued that it had well over 50% of industry support, the Chinese trade groups said that number included factories where USW didn’t represent the workers, and in reality the support is under 50%.
The fact that the petition was filed by a trade union also raised the issue of whether the companies that owned the U.S. tire factories support the investigation, said the Chinese trade groups. In their request to poll industry, the trade groups said that if workers at a factory support a petition but the owners of the factory oppose it, the two positions cancel each other out and are counted as a lack of opinion either way.