The International Trade Commission has ruled most of the tariffs on passenger and light truck tires imported from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam will remain in place, but there is one big exception.
The five commissioners of the ITC voted on June 23 in favor of the anti-dumping tariffs for passenger and light truck tires coming from South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. They also affirmed the countervailing tariff on imported tires from Vietnam.
But the commissioners voted to terminate the anti-dumping duty investigation related to tires from Vietnam. (See below for details on how the five commissioners voted.)
Since products from Vietnam were being investigated for dumping, as well as subsidies, it means tires from Vietnam will still be subject to some tariff correction. But, the countervailing rates that the Department of Commerce levied are in the single digits, and thus much lower than the 22.30% anti-dumping rate most tiremakers would have also had to pay.
That means instead of paying up to 28.76% in tariffs on passenger and light truck tires imported from Vietnam, depending on the brand, those tires will be subject to tariffs ranging from 6.23% to 7.89%.
The anti-dumping rates imposed on tires coming from South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand remain unchanged from late May when they were set by the Department of Commerce. The highest rates will be charged on tires coming from Taiwan.
How they voted
The five commissioners weren't unanimous in their decision making in this case. One commissioner, David Johanson, voted against imposing any tariffs in both the anti-dumping and countervailing investigations.
Johanson has voted against other tire tariffs in the past, most recently the review and continuation of tariffs on passenger and light truck tires from China.
The group's chair, Jason Kearns, along with Randolph Stayin, Rhonda Schmidtlein and Amy Karpel all voted in favor of the anti-dumping tariffs on tires from South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand, as well as the countervailing tariff on tires from Vietnam.
All five commissioners voted against the notion that passenger and light truck tires imported from Vietnam are being dumped in the U.S. at less-than-fair-market-value prices.
We won't know more specifics about why the commissioners voted the way they did until they release their standard follow-up report, which is due to be published by July 28.
