WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Commerce has revised antidumping and countervailing duties on some passenger and light truck tires imported from China.
The agency's final determinations, which were issued March 12 but had not been published in the Federal Register as of March 15, are in response to a United Steelworkers union petition to Commerce last fall.
The administrative reviews covered antidumping duties levied on Chinese car/light truck tires from Jan. 27, 2015, through July 31, 2016, and countervailing duties against the same tires between Dec. 1, 2014, and Dec. 31, 2015.
The duties on these tires were imposed in late 2014 and confirmed by the U.S. International Trade Commission in July 2015.
In the antidumping duty review, Commerce determined that Giti Tire Global Trading Co. Pte. Ltd. and its affiliates sold tires at less than fair value during the period under investigation, but at a much lower level than previously determined. As a result, Commerce lowered Giti's antidumping rate to 1.5 percent from 30.74 percent.
The same applied to Qingdao Sentury Tire Co. Ltd. and its affiliates, the agency said, and thus lowered Sentury's dumping duty to 4.41 percent from 25.30 percent.
Against more than 60 other importers, including Kumho Tire Co. Inc. and Triangle Tyre Co. Ltd., the agency found weighted-average dumping margins of 2.96 percent.
All of these importers qualified for "separate rate" treatment, meaning that they could prove the absence of both de facto and de jure government control over their export activities.
Commerce found another 32 importers, including Pirelli Tyre Co. Ltd., Qingdao Nexen Tire Corp. and Toyo Tire (Zhangjiagang) Co. Ltd., did not qualify for separate rate treatment, and assessed antidumping duties of 76.46 percent.
In the countervailing duty review, Commerce reviewed the subsidy rates of Giti and its affiliates, as well as those of Cooper (Kunshan) Tire Co. Ltd. The agency also determined that Zhongce Rubber Group Co. Ltd. (ZC Rubber) received subsidies during the period of review.
Commerce lowered the countervailing duties levied against Giti and its affiliates to 20.68 percent from 36.79 percent, and against Cooper to 16.16 percent from 20.73 percent. ZC Rubber's went to 119.46 percent from 89.77 percent.
As a result of Commerce's actions, the combined antidumping/countervailing duties on Giti and its affiliates fell to 22.18 percent from 60.84 percent.
Other companies under review received a countervailing duty rate of 19.13 percent, down from 30.87 percent as levied in mid-2015.
The agency will direct Customs and Border Protection to collect duties of these amounts from the tire importers going forward. It will also direct CBP to issue retroactive refunds to those whose duty rates were lowered, and bill those whose duties were increased.
The new rates are for the most part much lower than those issued by Commerce in June 2015.
Antidumping duties issued at that time ranged from 14.54 to 100.77 percent.
For countervailing duties, the rates were 36.79 percent for Giti, 20.73 percent for Cooper, 100.37 percent for Shandong Yongsheng Rubber Group Co. Ltd., and 30.61 percent for all others.
The non-selected companies affected by this review included: American Pacific Industries Inc.; BC Tyre Group Ltd.; Crown International Corp.; Fleming Ltd.; Guangrao Taihua International Trade Co. Ltd.; Haohua Orient International Trade Ltd.; Hong Kong Tiancheng Investment & Trading Co. Ltd.; Jilin Jixing Tire Co. Ltd.; Kenda Rubber (China) Co. Ltd.; Liaoning Permanent Tyre Co. Ltd.; Macho Tire Corp. Ltd.; Maxon Int'l Co. Ltd.; Qingdao Crown Chemical Co. Ltd.; Qingdao Goalstar Tire Co. Ltd.; Qingdao Keter International Co. Ltd.; Qingdao Lakesea Tyre Co. Ltd.; Qingdao Nama Industrial Co. Ltd.; Qingdao Odyking Tyre Co. Ltd.; Qingdao Sentury Tire Co. Ltd.; Qingzhou Detai International Trading Co. Ltd.; Riversun Industry Ltd.; Safe & Well (HK) International Trading Ltd.; Shandong Anchi Tyres Co. Ltd.; Shandong Changhong Rubber Technology Co. Ltd.; Shandong Guofeng Rubber Plastics Co. Ltd.; Shandong Haohua Tire Co. Ltd.; Shandong Hawk International Rubber Industry Co. Ltd.; Shandong Hengyu Science & Technology Co. Ltd.; Shandong Linglong Tyre Co. Ltd.; Shandong Longyue Rubber Co. Ltd.; Shandong New Continent Tire Co. Ltd.; Shandong Province Sanli Tire Manufactured Co. Ltd.; Shandong Yongtai Group Co. Ltd.; Shandong Zhongyi Rubber Co. Ltd.; Shangong Shuangwang Rubber Co. Ltd.; Shengtai Group Co. Ltd.; and Shouguang Firemax Tyre Co., Ltd.; Southeast Mariner International Co., Ltd.; Tyrechamp Group Co., Ltd.; Windforce Tyre Co., Ltd.; Zhaoqing Junhong Co., Ltd.