USW joins Titan Tire in trade case vs. Chinese imports

The United Steelworkers (USW) has joined Titan Tire Corporation as a co-petitioner in a trade case petition filed June 18 with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission, citing China imports of off-the-road (OTR) tires as being dumped and subsidized.

The USW and Titan Tire seek to have the government impose duties to off-set unfair Chinese imports of off-highway tires produced for use on vehicles and equipment in agricultural construction and industrial applications. According to the petition, China imports have increased from 11.2 million tires worth $166.35 million in 2004 to nearly 15 million tires worth $374.25 million in 2006.

China is the single-largest source of imports of OTR tires, accounting for more than 83 percent of total imports by volume in 2006.

USW president Leo W. Gerard said, “We are seeing the predatory policies of China chopping away at our domestic tire manufacturing industry. It’s urgent that we fight for aggressive enforcement of our nation’s trade laws before it’s too late and we see more family-supportive jobs lost to China subsidization and unfair dumping.”

China imports are significantly underselling U.S. produced OTR tires. Based on a comparison of Chinese and U.S. prices in the petition, the underselling averaged 29 percent. A second comparison shows underselling margins ranging from 2 to 30 percent. U.S. producers such as co-petitioner Titan Tire have lost significant sales and revenue to such low-priced imports.

Steve Vanderheyden, USW Local 745 president representing workers employed at Titan Tire’s plant in Freeport, Ill., said: “We’ve seen how difficult it is to compete with tire imports subsidized by China. The impact on our job security and communities require a more level playing field.”

The USW estimates it represents 70 percent of the domestic OTR tire makers with workers employed at Titan production plants employing about 1,355 workers in Des Moines, Iowa; Freeport, Ill.; and Bryan, Ohio; plus a total of about 4,215 employed at tire plants of Bridgestone/Firestone in Des Moines and Bloomington, Ill.; Denman Tire in Leavittsburg, Ohio; and Goodyear Tire and Rubber in Topeka, Kan., and Buffalo, N.Y.

Under the anti-dumping and countervailing duty statutes, the Commerce Department will determine whether to initiate an investigation in 20 days. The Trade Commission will make a preliminary injury determination by the beginning of August. Commerce could issue preliminary determinations in the countervailing duty and anti-dumping duty cases in early November, but such deadlines are subject to extensions.

The USW represents 850,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada employed in the industries of metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and the service sector.