The South African Tyre Manufacturers Conference (SATMC) - a representative body of the four tyre manufacturing companies in the Southern African Customs Union (“SACU”), welcomes the International Trade Administration Commission’s (ITAC) publication of provisional payments on unfairly traded (dumped) imports of passenger, truck and bus tyres imported from China. The provisional payments on the respective tariff classifications that will be in place for a period of six months, 09 September 2022 until 08 March 2023, is 38.33 percent ad valorem.
SATMC, which applied to ITAC for relief against dumped imports from China in late 2021, believes that these provisional payments will 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.
SATMC wishes to stress that the investigation that was initiated on 31 January 2022 is still ongoing. Only the Preliminary Phase of the investigation has been concluded and resulted in the provisional payments.
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 ITAC investigation will now continue with its Final Investigation Phase, during which ITAC will study all interested parties’ comments and verify information that was submitted, before issuing an Essential Facts letter. This will be followed by ITAC’s Final Determination that must be published by, or before, 31 July 2023.
Preliminary report due to be published by ITAC. Final Determination expected by 31 July 2023.
About SATMC
The SATMC is the official industry body and trade association of the local tyre manufacturers, namely, Bridgestone, Continental, Goodyear and Sumitomo. It is the voice of the local tyre manufacturers and represents them on trade, economic and environmental policies, tyre sector regulations.
The SATMC maintains stakeholder relationships in order to drive the objectives of its members. It actively engages consumers and other stakeholders to bring awareness and empower them around road safety.
Contact
Nduduzo Chala
SATMC Managing Executive
0745641055
Nduduzo@satmc.co.za