Blow to tyre exports from a US determination
Sri Lanka’s tyre exports to the United States got a severe blow this week following the US Commerce Department’s final affirmative determination against the island in the anti dumping duty investigation on “market-distorting” effects caused by “injurious dumping and unfair subsidisation” of imports.
The US Department took the decision on Wednesday January 4 after inquiring into indepth petitions filed by US tyre manufacturers including the Titan Tyre Corporation seeking redress from the dumping of certain new pneumatic off-the road tyres from India and Sri Lanka.
According to the fact sheet issued by US International Trade Administration, the US department found evidence to show that India and Sri Lanka subsidised the import (export to the US) of certain types of tyres.
Sri Lanka’s Commerce Department officials confirmed the US ruling but declined to make any comment.
Meanwhile several local tyre exporters are learnt to have urged the government including the Export Development Board, the Treasury and the Central Bank as well as the Sri Lankan Embassy in the US to intervene into this matter to remedy the situation.
In the Sri Lanka countervailing Duty investigation (CVD), the US Commerce Department calculated a final subsidy rate of 2.18 per cent for mandatory respondent Colombo-based Camso Loadstar (Pvt) Ltd and it has established a subsidy rate of 2.18 percent for all other producers/exporters in Sri Lanka.
US tyre manufacturers have alleged that imports of certain new pneumatic off-the-road tyres are sold at less than fair value in US and are subsidised by the governments of India and Sri Lanka.
This is for the first time that anti-dumping investigations from US have launched a probe into tyres coming from Sri Lanka, local exporters said adding that this determination will be a black mark for Sri Lanka’s achievement of the world’s number one producer of solid tyres
Anti-Dumping Duty is imposed by a counter as a trade barrier under the multilateral WTO regime and varies from product to product and from country to country. Usually countries initiate anti-dumping probes to check if domestic industry has been hurt because of a surge in below-cost imports, they pointed out
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) is scheduled to make its preliminary determinations on February 17, 2017 and the order will be issued on February 24.