On April 5, 2023, the Mexican Ministry of Economy announced the initiation of an anti-dumping investigation into passenger and light truck tires originating from or imported from China.
The products involved are new radial pneumatic tires with inner diameters ranging from 13 to 22 inches (330.2 millimeters to 558.8 millimeters), according to Mexican customs tariff codes 4011.10.10 and 4011.220.06. The dumping investigation period is from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022, and the damage analysis period is from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2022.
The applicant for the investigation is Bridgestone (Mexico) Tornel, Continental Michelin tires (Mexico) and Michelin tires (Mexico).
The China Rubber Industry Association, on behalf of the Chinese tire industry, participated in the lawsuit for damages and submitted comments on behalf of the industry during the preliminary and final arbitration stages.
On April 5, 2024, the Mexican investigative agency issued a preliminary ruling on the anti-dumping investigation of passenger cars and light truck tires from China, ruling that the investigated products imported from China pose a threat of harm to the domestic industry in Mexico, and decided to temporarily (within approximately six months from the preliminary ruling to the final ruling) not impose temporary anti-dumping duties.
On September 30, 2024, the Mexican investigative agency issued a final ruling on the anti-dumping investigation into passenger car and light truck tires from China.
The investigation found that the products imported from China pose a threat of harm to Mexico's domestic industry. Starting from October 1st, anti-dumping duties will be imposed on Chinese export and production enterprises according to the determined dumping margin.
Compared with the initial tax rate, the final tax rate of the 6 sampled enterprises has slightly increased for one enterprise, significantly decreased for Zhengdao Tire and Shandong Haohua, and remained consistent for the other 3 enterprises.
The average anti-dumping tax rate for enterprises has decreased from 21.77% in the initial ruling to 14.82% in the final ruling.
For the three companies that received separate tax rates in the preliminary ruling - Shandong Linglong, Shandong Changfeng, and Wanli Tire, the Mexican investigative agency did not lower the tax rates in the final ruling.
According to feedback from companies participating in the response, the Mexican investigative agency had many issues with the anti-dumping procedures in this case, and did not accept the reasonable defense claims made by the responding companies regarding domestic price adjustments. This is also one of the reasons why many sampled companies have higher tax rates, and although the average tax rate has decreased compared to the initial ruling, it is still higher than industry expectations.