On 20 September 2024, the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (Itac) extended an invitation to comment on the initiation of an investigation into alleged circumvention of anti-dumping measures on new pneumatic tyres of rubber of a kind used on motor cars, classifiable under tariff subheadings 4011.10.01, 4011.10.03, 4011.10.05, 4011.10.07, and 4011.10.09, and on buses or lorries, classifiable under tariff subheadings 4011.20.16, 4011.20.18, and 4011.20.26, through country hopping from the People’s Republic of China (China) via the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Kingdom of Thailand, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Comment is due by 25 October 2024.
The application was lodged by the South African Tyre Manufacturing Conference (SATMC), an industry body or trade association of the SACU industry. The SATMC members are Bridgestone South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Continental Tyre South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Goodyear South Africa (Pty) Ltd, and Sumitomo Rubber South Africa (Pty) Ltd, which together constitute 100 percent (100%) of the domestic production of the subject products in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU).
Country Hopping
The SATMC alleged that subsequent to the imposition of the provisional measures and the imposition of definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of new pneumatic tyres of rubber of a kind used on motor cars and on buses or lorries originating in or imported from China, Chinese exporters have shifted exporting of the subject products from China to some of their related companies in Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The SATMC provided a list of related companies of the Chinese exporters that were identified in the original investigation and are alleged to have a footprint in Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam through operational and/or ownership linkages. The SATMC believes that this relatedness, coupled with the impositions of the provisional measures and definitive anti-dumping duties, directly contributed to the change in the pattern of trade through activities, work or processes such as export channelling and undermined the remedial effects of the anti-dumping measure.