US tariffs on Chinese exports of tires for passenger cars and light trucks are set to expire Wednesday, and domestic companies are anticipating a bump in sales.
Analysts said that the expiry of the tariffs will boost exports of tires to the US and improve the profit margin for Chinese firms, but it will be hard for China to regain its dominant market share in the US tire market given the weak world economy.
The deadline for "interested parties to request an extension of the tire tariff" has passed, Carol J Guthrie, assistant US trade representative for public and media affairs at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), said in a statement e-mailed to the Global Times on September 15.
"The deadline for an extension request is six months prior to the termination of the tire tariffs, and no interested parties made a request for an extension," she said.
This means the tariffs "will automatically expire and the duties will be scrapped," said Tu Xingquan, associate director of the China Institute of WTO Studies with the Beijing-based University of International Business and Economics.
Back in April 2009, the US United Steelworkers union filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC), accusing Chinese tire makers of flooding the US market with tires and causing thousands of job losses and plant closures.
The ITC's investigation resulted in punitive tariffs on tire imports from China for a three-year period starting from September 2009.
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