Bob Bissler

Senior Editor

Bob Bissler is Modern Tire Dealer's senior editor. He began his interest in the automotive industry as a teenager helping his brother work on drag race cars, and after high school he worked in his other brother's body shop.

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Mike Manges

Senior Editor

Mike Manges is Modern Tire Dealer's senior editor. He is a three-time International Automotive Media Association award winner and holds a Gold Award from the Association of Automotive Publication Editors. He also edits MTD's acclaimed Commercial Tire Dealer section, as well as The Kovach Tire Report, MTD's sister publication. Mike has traveled the world -- including Asia, Europe and North America -- in pursuit of stories.

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Have Chinese tire tariffs restored any U.S. tire plant jobs?

By: Mike Manges

After asking the White House to compile a report about the economic impact of Chinese consumer tire tariffs, the U.S.-China Business Council has more to say about the controversial subject.

In a recently published white paper, "Tariffs on Chinese tires 10 months later: right or wrong remedy?", the Washington D.C.-based organization says no American tire manufacturing jobs have been created as a result of the tariff. (For a look at the letter the council sent to President Obama earlier this week, click here.)

In the run-up to the White House's tariff decision last summer, the United Steelworkers union, which originally asked for a large quota to be placed on Chinese consumer tire imports, claimed that punitive measures taken against Chinese tire manufacturers would result in the restoration of lost U.S.-based tire manufacturing jobs.

According to the council, "Information on low-end tire manufacturing jobs is not available, but data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that tire manufacturing employment overall is down 10% in the first five months of this year vs. the same period last year, prior to the tariffs."

"This downward trend in tire manufacturing employment has been steady over the past decade and the tariffs do not seem to have made an impact," it continues.

"As a consequence, the employment trends do not seem to indicate a positive impact from the tariffs, or indeed any link at all, between the tariffs and American jobs.

"Claims by some advocates that the (Chinese tire) tariffs have restored health to the low-end tire manufacturing industry and created jobs are simply not supported by the available facts.

"The data that is available raises questions about whether the tariffs have done more harm than good to the U.S. economy. We need objective analysis and appropriate monitoring to understand the full impact of these tariffs on jobs and the pocketbooks of American households."

The council makes some valid points. I've yet to see a report from the federal government about the impact of tariffs on domestic tire plant employment, nor have I received similar data from the Steelworkers.

Companies may have plans to ramp up consumer tire production here in the States. (So far, the only tiremaker that has gone on record as saying that might be in the cards, to my knowledge, is Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. For details, see "Cooper reacts to growing tire demand," posted Aug. 5.)

But can anyone confidently say tariffs have triggered the addition of new American tire plant jobs or the restoration of lost ones? (The tariffs, by the way, will drop from 35% to 30% at the tail end of September.) Or was the union's job creation angle just a strawman argument?

Related Topics: Chinese tires, Consumer Tires, Imports, The U.S.-China Business Council, United Steelworkers