WASHINGTON — The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) has voted to keep in place antidumping and countervailing duties on off-the-road tires from India, ruling that to revoke them would "be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury" to the domestic industry.
The ruling comes as part of the five-year (sunset) review process required by the Uruguay Round Agreements Act.
The duties under review, in place since early 2017, were the result of petitions in 2016 from Titan Tire Corp. and the United Steelworkers (USW) union, requesting relief under Sections 701 and 731 of the Trade Act.
According to the ITC, this action covers new pneumatic OTR tires up to 39 inches in rim diameter. The agency defines the category as tires of various types and sizes designed for use principally on vehicles and implements in the agricultural, mining and construction, and other industrial sectors.
The duties imposed — and thus now retained — were considered relatively insignificant: antidumping of 3.67% industrywide and countervailing duties of 4.72% to 5.36% on specific companies.
The ruling was unanimous, with Chairman David S. Johanson and Commissioners Rhonda K. Schmidtlein, Jason E. Kearns, Randolph J. Stayin and Amy A. Karpel voting in the affirmative.
The ITC will publish a complete review of the case — Pneumatic Off-the-Road Tires from India (Inv. Nos. 701-TA-552 and 731-TA-1308 (Review) — by May 25 at the latest. That report, USITC Publication 5417, will contain the views of the commission and information developed during the review.
Representatives of the petitioners and the affected companies testified on the matter at a hearing held March 2 at ITC headquarters in Washington.
The report will be available by May 25, 2023; when available, it may be accessed on the USITC website.
According to data presented by Titan Tire in a submission to the ITC, the number of pneumatic OTR tires imported from India exceeded 2 million units in 2021, up from 1.29 million in 2020 and 1.47 million in 2019.
That translated into $345.5 million, Titan said, based on an average declared customs value of $168.20.
Overall, imports of the subject tires in 2021 totaled 4.22 million units, according to U.S. Department of Commerce data, indicating India accounted for roughly 47% of all imports in the categories under review. The value of these categories combined add up to just over $1 billion.
Other companies with U.S. manufacturing capacities— Bridgestone Americas, Carlstar Group L.L.C., Goodyear, Specialty Tires of America Inc. and Trelleborg Wheel Systems Americas L.L.C. — potentially affected by the duties did not participate in the hearings.
Balkrishna Industries Ltd. and ATC Tires Pvt. Ltd. (Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd.) — the companies most affected by the duties — submitted statements arguing that allowing the duties to lapse "will not lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury to the domestic industry."
