As we all know, on June 3 the United Steelworkers filed with the U.S. Commerce Department petitions seeking additional (and more permanent) antidumping and countervailing duties on China-produced consumer tires exported to the U.S.

What we don’t know is if the USW has the legal standing to obtain – let alone seek – such government action. Those are the key questions being sorted out by the Commerce Department, and why the deadline has been moved out to July 18.

By law, the Commerce Department must “within 20 days of the filing of an antidumping or countervailing duty petition” whether the petition “has been filed by or on behalf of the U.S. industry producing the domestic like product,” according to a posting in the Federal Register today.

That deadline can be extended by an additional 20 days “in any case in which the Department must ‘poll or otherwise determine support for the petition by the industry.’”

The agency said the USW petitions did not make clear “whether the industry support criteria have been met, the Department determines it should extend the time for initiating an investigation in order to further examine the issue of industry support.”

Thus the July 18 deadline, which is the next business day following the actual calendar deadline of July 14.

So the question before the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission is whether the USW has standing. According to the Federal Register posting, “Sections 702(b)(1) and 732(b)(1) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, require that a petition be filed by or on behalf of the domestic industry.”

The Commerce Department must first determine “whether a minimum percentage of the relevant industry supports the petition. A petition meets this requirement if the domestic producers or workers who support the petition account for: (i) At least 25% of the total production of the domestic like product; and (ii) more than 50% of the production of the domestic like product produced by that portion of the industry expressing support for, or opposition to, the petition.”

If the USW’s standing is found wanting, the Commerce Department can still “poll the industry or rely on other information in order to determine if there is support for the petition.”

At press time, no tiremaker doing business in the U.S. has issued any statement on the USW petitions. Neither has the RMA.