MADISON, Tenn. — Representatives of the U.S. retreading industry, coalesced under the "Retread Instead" banner, will gather June 20 in Washington to lobby Congress to consider imposing import tariffs on Chinese-sourced truck and bus tires that the group blames for undermining their industry.
"Retreading and related industries depend on premium new tires for (their) success, and this vital material is being negatively impacted by the importation of low quality, non-retreadable new tires from China at below fair market prices…," said Ron Elliott, marketing and communications manager for Marangoni Tread North America Inc. and spokesperson for the Retread Instead coalition.
"…the retreader's voice must and will be heard during our visit to Capitol Hill," he added.
The Retread Instead coalition's visit to Capitol Hill will coincide with the Tire Industry Association's (TIA) annual Federal Lobby Day event, scheduled for the same day. TIA encourages its members come to Washington to meet with members of Congress in order to inform, educate and make requests regarding the most important issues facing the tire industry.
Retread Instead is a coalition of retread industry supporters that seeks to inform and educate on the environmental and economic benefits of supporting retreading instead of buying, selling and running low quality Chinese non-retreadable tires.
The Retread Instead initiative grew out of a petition drive in early 2017. The effort, coordinated by Marangoni Tread, was intended to spur the Trump administration to reconsider the U.S. Commerce Department's decision to not impose duties on imports of truck tires from China.
That petition drive urged the Trump administration to fill a vacancy on the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) so the "full commission can review this important case" and asked the president to direct the Commerce Department and the office of the U.S. Trade Representative "to judiciously monitor imports of truck and bus tires until such time as the case can be fully adjudicated."
That drive — organized through the government's "We the people" petitioning page — fell short of the necessary 100,000 signatures that would have compelled the White House to take action, but served to draw attention to the issue.
Retread Instead supports imposing tariffs on commercial Chinese truck and bus tires that are imported because China is a "non-market economy" that dumps low quality non-retreadable truck tires into the U.S. below fair market value thus undermining the retread industry, the coalition said.
