US postpones antidumping ruling

Washington – The US Department of Commerce has postponed by 50 days its preliminary antidumping duty determination on truck and bus tires imported from China, according to a 2 June Federal Register notice.

The postponement will move the preliminary ruling to 26 Aug from the former date of 7 July. Commerce originally scheduled the determination to be issued 140 days after the 18 Feb initiation of the truck/bus tire investigation.

The final ruling will still be 75 days after the preliminary determination, which would move that date to 11 Dec from 27 Sept.

On 20 May, the United Steelworkers (USW) union – the original petitioner in the truck/bus tire case – filed a new petition requesting the postponement.

“The petitioner states that a postponement is necessary given a very large number of separate rate applications and the need for additional time to analyse responses,” Commerce said in the 2 June notice. There was no compelling reason to deny the USW’s request for a postponement, it said.

This is the second time the USW has requested a postponement in the Chinese truck/bus tire investigation. On 31 March, Commerce granted the union’s request for a postponement of the preliminary determination of countervailing duties in that investigation, moving the date to 27 June from 25 April.