On July 18, 2023, the United States issued a preliminary determination on the first administrative review of countervailing duty on automobile tires from Vietnam.
On May 13, 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) received information about the submission of investigation requests for the application of anti-dumping and countervailing measures on passenger vehicle and light truck (PVLT) tires originating from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
In this case, the petitioner alleged that the imported tires subject to investigation were sold at unfairly low prices and benefited from subsidies in the U.S. market, causing significant harm to the domestic tire manufacturing industry. According to data from the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC), Vietnam's exports of the investigated products to the U.S. reached 12.1 million units in 2019, accounting for about 6.7% of the total imports of these products by the U.S.
Vietnam's automobile tire manufacturers were warned about the potential investigation and the imposition of trade remedies starting in July 2019. Therefore, the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade had made preparations in advance, actively coordinated with associations and export companies to proactively gather information and respond in case of an investigation.
On December 30, 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a preliminary investigation determination on automobile tires exported from Vietnam and some other economies.
In May 2021, the U.S. officially issued its final determination in the anti-dumping and countervailing investigation on automobile tires imported from Vietnam. Specifically, the U.S. maintained the decision announced in the preliminary determination, imposing a 22.3% anti-dumping duty on Vietnamese automobile tires.
Notably, only 4.5% of the total export value of Vietnamese companies' automobile tires to the U.S. were found to have engaged in dumping behavior. The remaining companies, accounting for 95.5% of the total export value, were subject to the general anti-dumping duty of 22.3%.
The level of countervailing duties determined for Vietnamese companies ranged from 6.23% to 7.89%, reduced from the range of 6.23% to 10.08% in the preliminary determination.
First Administrative Review of Countervailing Duty on Automobile Tires from Vietnam
The U.S. Department of Commerce conducted a review of countervailing duty based on the request of one Vietnamese export company during the period from November 10, 2020, to December 31, 2021.
The first administrative review of countervailing duty on automobile tires from Vietnam was officially initiated on September 6, 2022.
After considering information from relevant parties, including the Vietnamese government and export companies, the DOC issued a preliminary determination determining that some Vietnamese companies did not receive any specific subsidies from the Vietnamese government for 26 out of 27 alleged programs.
Based on information from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the remaining alleged program (undervaluation of currency) was provisionally assigned a countervailing duty rate of 1.26% for the period from November 10 to December 31, 2020, and 0% for the period from January 01 to December 31, 2021. This is a significant reduction compared to the current duty rate of 6.46% applied to the company.
It is expected that the DOC will issue the final determination for this review within 120 days from the date of the preliminary determination's announcement.
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