Citing the “extraordinary complexity of this case and the number of firms whose activities we must investigate,” the U.S. Commerce Department this morning pushed back the date for it to make a preliminary decision on its investigation of consumer tires imported from China. 
This marks the second time the Commerce Department has delayed its preliminary decision deadline. On Aug. 13, acting on a petition by the USW, the Commerce Department pushed back from Sept. 17 to Nov. 21 the deadline for completion of the preliminary determination on its antidumping and countervailing duty complaint targeting China-made consumer tires imported into the U.S.
Now that deadline has been bumped back to Jan. 20, 2015.
“The Department concludes that because of the extraordinary complexity of this case and the number of firms whose activities we must investigate, including over 80 separate rate applications, it is not practicable to complete the preliminary determination by the current deadline,” the Commerce Department said in the Federal Register.
On Aug. 21, the U.S. International Trade Commission announced that its investigation has found “reasonable indication that an industry in the U.S. is materially injured or threatened with material injury by reason of imports from China of certain passenger vehicle and light truck tires,” that “are alleged to be sold in the United States at less than fair value and are allegedly subsidized by the Government of China.”
As a result, the ITC gave “notice of the commencement of the final phase of its investigations,” the schedule for which will be released once the Commerce Department makes affirmative or negative “preliminary determinations in the investigations.”
On Sept. 12, though, the USW filed a petition seeking an expedited decision and implementation of anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Chinese-produced consumer tires exported to the U.S. The union claimed that “there is a reasonable basis to believe or suspect that there have been massive imports” of such tires in a “relatively short period,” which the Commerce Department defines as a three-month period starting from when the original petition was filed, in this case June 3.
According to that USW filing, imports of China-made consumer tires “have increased 23% by value and 26% by volume.” It is suspected that any such sharp increases in tire imports may well be various manufacturers and marketers working to get as much China-produced inventory stateside before any tariffs or duties are instituted.
