The association “feels strongly that this measure, despite being well-intentioned, would not help in the preservation of manufacturing jobs, and would be harmful to consumers, as these tires are often an affordable solution to those drivers with limited budgets.” TIA also noted its long-standing position that all tires – regardless of country of origin – must be held to all applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
 
On April 20, the United Steel Workers (USW) petitioned the ITC to determine whether passenger and light truck tires manufactured in China are being imported in such increased quantities or under such conditions as to cause or threaten to cause market disruption to the producers of like or directly competitive products. They are requesting the imposition of an import quota of 21 million tires (2005 levels) with an increase of 5% each year over a three-year period. This would reduce current imports by almost half.

TIA said it is sympathetic to the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs, but understands that this has occurred over the course of many years and under a multitude of trade policy initiatives, and this attempt will not result in either an increase or a preservation of U.S. tire manufacturing jobs.
 
"TIA believes that the proposal before the ITC would be the worst of both worlds – no U.S. manufacturing jobs would be either saved or created, and consumers would be denied a source of affordable tires at a time in our economy when every penny counts," said TIA Executive Vice President Roy Littlefield. "Any reduction in the quantity of tires imported from China would be in and of itself disruptive, as no manufacturing uptick here in the U.S. would satisfy the shortage this measure would create. Instead, manufacturers would have to essentially ration their products, thus resulting in shortages, outages, and most likely, much higher tire prices."
 
TIA’s complete statement is available for download in the "News" section of www.tireindustry.org. (Tire Review/Akron)