South African tyre manufacturers have welcomed the International Trade Administration Commission’s (Itac) publication of a hefty provisional import duty that will be imposed on dumped imported Chinese tyres for six months.
The South African Tyre Manufacturers Conference (SATMC), which represents the four tyre manufacturing companies in the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu), welcomed the introduction of a new 38.33% import duty. The duty will be imposed on “unfairly traded” passenger, truck and bus tyres imported from China. The provisional payments will be in place for a period of six months, effective from September 9, 2022 until March 8, 2023. The SATMC applied to Itac for relief against dumped imports from China in late 2021 and the commission is now in the process of investigating the matter before making a final decision.
SATMC managing executive Nduduzo Chala said the association believed that the provisional payments would address the issue of “unfairly traded tyres from China that over many years have caused the Sacu tyre industry to suffer material injury that placed the tyre industry’s future, investment opportunities, as well as direct and indirect job creation, at risk”.
“Fairly traded imports at prevailing prices from countries other than China, such as Korea and Japan, will continue unaffected into Sacu,” Chala said.
Itac recently completed the preliminary phase of the investigation, which led to the publication of the provisional payments decision. A preliminary report will be published setting out Itac’s decision. Interested parties have 14 days from the date of publication of the preliminary report to comment in writing to Itac.
The investigation will now continue in its final phase, during which it will study all interested parties’ comments and verify information submitted before issuing an essential facts letter. This will be followed by its final determination that must be published by, or before, July 31, 2023.
