US Commerce Department sets tariffs on Chinese off-road tires

In a move to protect the US tire industry from Chinese dumping, the U.S. Commerce Department today set a 210% duty on some brands of Chinese off-road tires, but not others. Here's a selection from the Reuters story:

The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday set final duties ranging up to more than 210 percent on millions of off-road tires it said were being sold in the United States at unfairly low prices.

"After a thorough investigation, the Department of Commerce has found that Chinese exporters of off-the-road tires have received government subsidies and sold at below the cost of production in the United States," said Assistant Commerce Secretary David Spooner said in a statement.

Titan Tire Corp, an Iowa-based company that makes off-road tires for agricultural, construction and industrial vehicles for customers including John Deere-Lanz Verwaltungs AG, and union workers filed two cases last year asking for import relief.

Nashville-based Bridgestone Corp, the world's largest tire and rubber company, has supported the case....

The case is one of several that U.S. manufacturers in businesses ranging from steel pipe to refrigerator magnets have brought over the past year against their Chinese competitors....

"China illegally subsidizes its industries and manipulates its currency to unfairly give an advantage to its manufacturers over American workers, and those Chinese companies must be punished in this case," Rep. Don Manzullo, an Illinois Republican, said in testimony to the U.S. ITC.

The ruling of course, does nothing against Chinese currency manipulations which subtract about 40% from the price of every Chinese product sold in the United States and add about 40% to the price of every US product sold in China. Recently the US Treasury Department told an incredulous Congress that China was not manipulating its currency, even though they have already collected about $1.3 trillion as a byproduct of these "nonexistent" manipulations.

There is a pattern emerging: The Commerce Department uses anti-dumping provisions to protect politically-active industries, while the US Treasury Department gives less-well-connected US industries to the Chinese government saying, in effect, "Take them -- we won't want them!"

Follow the following link to read the Reuters story about the new tariff: http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0830689920080708

Howard