CMA to appeal 'unjust' duty on OTR tires

Washington — The China Manufacturers Alliance LLC (CMA) is branding a US Department of Commerce finding of a 105.3-percent anti-dumping duty on Double Coin-brand OTR tires sold in the US as “unjust” and is pledging to appeal the decision.

“We feel that the final determination is unjust,” said CMA vice president Aaron Murphy in a press statement, “and so we are actively preparing for an appeal.”

An appeal would likely go through the Court of International Trade, according to Dan Porter of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP, lead counsel for CMA’s review of the anti-dumping duties.

The case stretches back to October 2013, when Commerce opened an investigation into the import duties CMA was paying for OTR tires it imports from China.

After an 18-month process, Commerce rendered a final determination that the company’s sale prices were well above market economy costs of production, CMA said, despite the agency’s separate determination of a 0.14-percent rate based on Double Coin’s sales and cost data.

However, Commerce instead imposed a rate last October of 105.3 percent on Double Coin tires, based on what CMA claims was Commerce’s perception that a Chinese shareholder of Double Coin had influence in the manner in which CMA determined its U.S. selling prices.

CMA appealed that determination and has been fighting the decision since.

Porter said Commerce based its decision “entirely because CMA’s largest shareholder (Double Coin) is a publicly traded company in China whose largest stockholder (Huayi) is a state-owned company.

“Commerce … assumed that this state-owned company influenced CMA’s US sales of Double Coin tires. However, Commerce’s … own investigation confirmed that CMA alone determines the US selling prices for Double Coin’s OTR tires and because of this fact, the Commerce Department’s legal conclusion that the Chinese government controls Double Coin’s export activities is both wrong and unlawful.”

Double Coin tires are imported and distributed in the US by Monrovia, California-based CMA, which is a subsidiary of Double Coin Holding Ltd.