US imposes anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese tires

Companies that are subject to an anti-dumping duty of 22.3 percent account for less than 4.5 percent of Vietnamese tire exports to the U.S.

These Vietnamese tire exporters are also subjected to countervailing duties of 6.23-7.89 percent, with the DOC maintaining that tires from Vietnam are being unfairly subsidized by currency undervaluation. The imposed countervailing duties are lower than the preliminary ones which were slapped in November last year.

Duties on Vietnam’s tires are the lowest among countries placed under investigation, including South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand, according to Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

The MoIT, along with Vietnam’s authorities and enterprises, has worked with the DOC to protect the legitimate interests of Vietnamese businesses, proving that Vietnam’s tires were not being dumped in the U.S. market.

Vietnam also affirmed that it has not intended and will not intend to use monetary policies to undervalue its currency for creating unfair competitive advantages in international trade.

"Vietnam doesn't dump nor subsidise its automobile tires for exports, and doesn't manipulate currency to gain unfair advantage in international trade," Reuters quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang as saying.

The DOC had previously concluded that most Vietnamese tire exporters, who account for 95.5 percent of Vietnamese tire exports to the U.S., did not dump products in the U.S. and did not subject them to anti-dumping duties. But a few companies that were hit with the duties did not fully cooperate with U.S. authorities, according to the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam.

In 2020, U.S. imports of car and light truck tires from Vietnam were valued at $470 million, approximately the same as 2019, according to the DOC.