China “deeply concerned” by US tire duties

Beijing -  The Chinese government has signalled its concern about the ‘flawed decision’ by the US Department of Commerce (DOC) on 21 Jan to impose preliminary anti-dumping duties on tires produced in China.

Chinese enterprises involved in the case were hit with duties of 19.17 percent and 36.26 percent, respectively. The DOC also set a 87.99percent China-wide rate for any company not previously listed. Several Chinese state-owned enterprises involved in the case could not get the average rate, and were hit by the China-wide rate.

In response, China’s Ministry of Commerce’s (MOFCOM) trade remedy and investigation bureau issued a statement quoting a senior official as saying that the Chinese government was “deeply concerned” and that the case against the country’s tire makers had “many flaws”.

First of all, the MOFCOM official said, the case was prompted by a US trade union rather than US tire makers, who did not support the case but were forced to remain neutral under union pressure.

Secondly, the statement argued that as data showed that the US tire industry was in good shape and profitable, imports from China had not damaged the US domestic industry.

Thirdly, the official said, “US investigators disregarded relevant WTO decisions and stuck to their unreasonable practice, refusing to give Chinese state-owned enterprises involved in the case separate tax rates.”

In 2009, the US handed special protection tariffs to the above-mentioned Chinese tires, causing serious damage to Sino-US economic and trade relations, the MOFCOM statement went on to point out.

“We hope the US can learn the lesson and handle this case with caution, so as to avoid damaging once again the trade and cooperation between the relevant industries in the two countries and creating inharmonious elements in Sino-US trade,” the official concluded.