On May 13, 2020, The United States Department of Commerce (“DOC”)
has received an investigation request for anti-dumping and countervailing
measures against passenger and light truck tires (“PVLT tires”) originating
from Korea, Taiwan-China, Thailand and Vietnam. The mandatory respondents being
US importers have also consulted with anti-dumping and countervailing duty lawyers in Vietnam and
US to prepare for the investigation cooperation.
In this case, the plaintiff alleges that the tires under
investigation were dumped and subsidized into the United States market, causing
significant damage to the domestic manufacturing industry. In 2015, the same
petitioner succeeded in securing anti-dumping and countervailing duties on PVLT
tires from China.
The scope of these investigations is passenger vehicle and light
truck tires. Passenger vehicle and light truck tires are new pneumatic tires,
of rubber, with a passenger vehicle or light truck size designation. Tires
covered by these orders may be tube-type, tubeless, radial, or nonradial, and
they may be intended for sale to original equipment manufacturers or the
replacement market. The products covered by the investigations are currently
classified under the following Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States
(“HTSUS”) subheadings: 4011.10.10.10, 4011.10.10.20, 4011.10.10.30, 4011.10.10.40,
4011.10.10.50, 4011.10.10.60, 4011.10.10.70, 4011.10.50.00, 4011.20.10.05, and
4011.20.50.10. The scope could also include tires entering under HTSUS
subheadings 4011.90.10.10, 4011.90.10.50, 4011.90.20.10, 4011.90.20.50,
4011.90.80.10, 4011.90.80.50, 8708.70.45.30, 8708.70.45.46, 8708.70.45.48,
8708.70.45.80, 8708.70.60.30, 8708.70.60.45, and 8708.70.60.60.
Petitioner alleges the following dumping margins: 45.95% to
195.20% for South Korea, 21% to 102% for Taiwan, 106.4% to 217.5% for Thailand,
and 14.73% to 33.06% for Vietnam. The petitions also detail numerous government
subsidies benefitting Vietnamese tire producers, including loans, tax breaks,
and grants. PVLT tire imports from these four countries shot up nearly 20% from
2017 to 2019, reaching 85.3 million tires, valued at 4.4 billion dollars, last
year.
According to data from the United States International Trade
Commission (“USITC”), the export value of Vietnam’s investigated products to
the United States market reached 12.1 million dollars in 2019, accounting for
about 6.7% of total United States imports of this product.
In Vietnam, the product under investigation is a product that has
been warned by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of risks of foreign
investigation by applying trade remedies measures from July 2019 with a high
level of warning. Therefore, in the past time, the Ministry of Industry and
Trade has actively coordinated and worked with associations and exporters to
the United States to actively capture information and respond in case of
initiating an investigation. Under United States regulations, the DOC will
consider initiating an investigation of the case within 20 days of receiving
it. In the event that the DOC decides to initiate an investigation, the
Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam will closely coordinate with export
associations and enterprises in investigating the case and have timely support
and treatment measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of
Vietnamese enterprises.
Vietnam international trade lawyers in
competition, and anti-dumping practice will need to be involved with the
process including data collection and possibly initial drafting of questionnaire
responses in cooperation with US anti-dumping and countervailing duty lawyers
to defend the case.
