WASHINGTON—Two major importers of tires from China—including one of the largest U.S. nameplate tire makers—have filed documents in the U.S. Court of International Trade disputing the Commerce Department's antidumping and countervailing duties findings against Chinese passenger and light truck tires.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. and its Chinese subsidiary, Cooper (Kunshan) Tire Co. Ltd. and former subsidiary Cooper Chengshan (Shandong) Tire Co. Ltd., filed summonses Sept. 8 to the Commerce and Justice
departments, stating Cooper had begun a civil action contesting various aspects of the final antidumping and countervailing duty findings issued June 18 and affirmed Aug. 10 by the Commerce Department's International Trade Commission.
The same day, tire importer ITG Voma Corp. filed similar summonses for the same purpose. Cooper's summonses do not constitute appeals per se, a spokeswoman said. Rather, they preserve a company's right to file an appeal should it decide later to do so, she said.
The United Steelworkers petitioned the International Trade Commission (ITC) on June 3, 2014, requesting relief against Chinese tire imports under Section 701 and 731 of the Trade Act. The ITC's final determination of material injury in the two cases came in a 3-3 vote July 14.
The countervailing duties levied by the agency range from 20.73 to 116.33 percent, while the antidumping duties range from 14.35 to 87.99 percent.