The US will postpone a decision on new anti-dumping duties on tires

The US Department of Commerce has agreed to postpone until December 29 the deadline for publishing the results of its preliminary investigation into possible dumping by passenger and light truck tires from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

The ministry agreed to postpone the deadline by 50 days in response to a request from the US Steel Workers' Union (USW), which believes the ministry will not be able to collect all the information it needs by the initial deadline.

This decision automatically pushes the date of the final decision from late January to mid-March.

In June of this year, a decision was made on an anti-dumping investigation against the import of tires from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. In early May, the USW filed a petition for investigation, which claims that tire manufacturers from these countries are selling their products in the United States at significantly reduced prices.

In 2019, the United States imported $1.96 billion worth of tires from Thailand, $1.17 billion from Korea, $496.6 million from Vietnam, and $373 million from Taiwan.

If the Department of Commerce determines that there is dumping and/or unfair subsidies, it will instruct US Customs and Border Protection to impose customs duties on all US companies importing passenger car and light truck tires from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. If any dumping or other irregularities are found to be absent, or if the imports are determined not to harm US industry, the investigation will be dropped and no duties will be applied.

Earlier, the United States imposed anti-dumping duties on Chinese tires, after which many manufacturers were forced to move production to other Asian countries, including Thailand and Vietnam.