WASHINGTONU.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is collecting provisional antidumping duties from Chinese tire manufacturers and importers in the wake of the final determinations in the casebut not countervailing duties, according to sources at CBP and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
On June 12, the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration (ITA) made final determinations in the countervailing and antidumping duty petitions brought by the United Steelworkers union.
The ITA issued final countervailing duty levels of 20.73 to 100.77 percent, and final antidumping duty levels of 14.35 to 87.99 percent.
One month later, on July 14, the International Trade Commission (ITC) made a final determination that U.S. tire manufacturers are suffering material injury because of underpriced Chinese imports. This made the ITA's final duty determinations official.
The preliminary countervailing duty determinations on Chinese tires were made earlier than the antidumping determinations, an ITA spokesman explained to Tire Business. When the parties in the Chinese tire case asked for both duty investigations to be decided simultaneously, this meant the statutory limit on collecting provisional countervailing duties would run out more quickly than that for collecting antidumping duties, he said.
The CBP stopped collecting provisional countervailing duties on Chinese tires on March 31, 2015, according to a CBP spokeswoman. It will stop collecting provisional antidumping duties when Commerce tells it to do so, she told Tire Business.
As soon as the ITC sends its final report on the Chinese tires investigation to Commerceand Commerce issues a notice in the Federal Registercollection of final countervailing and antidumping duties will begin, the ITA spokesman said. A redacted public version of the report will be available on the ITC website, www.usitc.gov, by Aug. 24.
Countervailing and antidumping duty orders last for five years, and then are reviewed if the affected parties request it.
To reach this reporter: [email protected]