Titan International Inc. Chairman and CEO Maurice Taylor says he is disappointed in the International Trade Commission's decision not to investigate imports of mounted off-the-road tires from China, but also still confident the Department of Commerce (DOC) will find sufficient cause of damage to the domestic OTR industry.
The ITC voted 6-0 on Feb. 19, 2016, to continue its investigation of mounted and unmounted tires from India and Sri Lanka. The DOC also has launched its own investigation.
Titan says the ITC halted the investigation of the mounted OTR tires from China "due to the 3% volume threshold not being satisfied." The government already has imposed tariffs on unmounted OTR tires from China.
Below is the statement from Taylor, in full:
"On behalf of the company and our workers, I want to thank the Commission and the Commission staff for the hard work put into this preliminary injury investigation. Titan is gratified that the USITC made affirmative preliminary determinations on imports from India and Sri Lanka. However, we are disappointed that the Commission chose not to pursue the investigation on mounted tires from China. We will review the USITC's decision when it is released in the forthcoming weeks and will consider what steps, if any, should be pursued.
"Our company and workers and the industry in general has been under attack by what we believe are unfairly traded imports from these countries. The USITC's vote means that the investigations will shift to the DOC where the DOC will investigate whether the subject imports are being dumped or subsidized within the meaning of U.S. law.
"While the investigation process is time consuming, we are confident that our government will conduct a thorough investigation and determine the extent of the unfair trade practices that are harming Titan, its workers and other companies in the industry.
"Titan and the USW believe that we have a common sense case, wherein if you have separate duties on tires and steel wheels, the duties should not disappear if the two are sold together. The duties should stay with the products. This should be true if the wheel and tire assemblies are imported individually or on a machine. In both instances, a duty should be paid. This is a prime example of one of the ridiculous issues that presidential candidate Donald Trump has railed against.
"We can compete with anyone if the competition is fair. The USITC's vote moves us one step closer to obtaining the necessary relief from what we believe are unfairly traded imports. We believe that we will be successful in this effort."
For more information about Titan, visit www.titan-intl.com.
