Cheng Shin Rubber Ind. Co. Ltd. has won a bit of a reprieve from the tariff rates the Department of Commerce initially assessed on its tires imported into the U.S. from Taiwan.
Due to “ministerial errors” — those are basically mistakes in calculations or in how the government used formulas to determine a company’s sales and rates — the government has agreed to lower Cheng Shin’s anti-dumping rate from 52.42% to 33.33%. (In the U.S., Cheng Shin dba Maxxis.)
The change comes after the United Steelworkers alleged the DOC had made errors in its calculations. Cheng Shin made similar assertions, as did Nankang Rubber Tire Corp. Ltd., though the DOC didn’t alter Nankang’s rate.
Because Cheng Shin’s rate was used in a formula to calculate a rate for all the other companies bringing tires into the U.S., that rate also changed, albeit slightly. It dropped from 88.82% to 84.83%.
When these miscalculations are discovered, the new, lower rates are then imposed retroactively. So these rates are actually effective Jan. 6, 2021, the date the tariffs imposed on passenger and light truck tires from Taiwan — as well as South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam — were initially active.
