Washington, DC—Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce released its preliminary finding that the governments of Mexico and Thailand subsidize their chassis industries. Commerce announced affirmative preliminary countervailing duty rates of 133.18% on imports from Mexico and 2.24%, 7.97%, or 9.42% on imports from Thailand, depending on the producer. The U.S. Chassis Manufacturers Coalition, which consists of major American chassis manufacturers Stoughton Trailers and Cheetah Chassis Corporation, thanks Commerce for its decision to impose duties, which are vital to U.S. manufacturers and workers.
Chassis are essential to U.S. supply chains, but U.S. production of this critical piece of transportation equipment has been injured by subsidized imports—first by unfairly priced imports from China, and now from Mexico and Thailand. Today's determinations establish the preliminary duty rates in the subsidies portion of the investigations. Following the publication of Commerce's preliminary determination in the Federal Register in approximately one week, Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to begin suspending liquidation and collecting preliminary duties (in the form of cash deposits) on entries of chassis and chassis subassemblies (such as steel frames) from Mexico and Thailand.
These determinations are preliminary, and subsidy rates may increase before the final determination. The countervailing duty investigations are ongoing, and Commerce has not yet had time to fully investigate all potential subsidies, including new subsidy and creditworthiness allegations, which may lead to higher subsidy rates for the final determination. Commerce's final determination is currently expected in late November 2025 but may be extended to align with the corresponding antidumping investigations.
These duty rates are only for the countervailing duty investigations. They do not yet include the calculated antidumping rates from the investigations of chassis from Mexico, Thailand, and Vietnam. These preliminary antidumping rates will be announced in late September and added to the preliminary subsidy rates.
"Today's decision is a positive first step towards addressing the harm that has been done to the U.S. chassis industry," said Robert E. DeFrancesco, trade counsel to the Petitioner and a partner in the International Trade Practice at Wiley. "The Commerce Department's decision recognizes that foreign governments provide meaningful and anticompetitive support to boost their chassis producers—in the case of one Thai company, a subsidiary of a Chinese, state-owned entity."
The duties that will be imposed following today's decision are assessed on the importer of record of the merchandise. Duty evasion, absorption, and circumvention are illegal and closely monitored by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in conjunction with the Commerce Department.