The U.S. Commerce Department said on May 24 that car and light truck tires from Vietnam are being unfairly subsidized due to a currency undervaluation. Specifically, tires from Vietnam are being subsidized from 6.23% to 7.89% through converting USD to VND at an undervalued exchange rate.
As posted by Reuter in a recent title, it also found in its investigation that tires exported from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam had been dumped at below-market rates in the United States. Tires from South Korea were dumped at a rate of up to 27%, from Taiwan at up to 102%, from Thailand at up to 21% and from Vietnam at up to 22%.
In 2020, U.S. imports of car and light truck tires were valued at approximately $1.2 billion from South Korea, $373 million from Taiwan, $2 billion from Thailand and $470 million from Vietnam.
This is not the first time the US has accused Vietnam of manipulating its currency so that export items can enjoy preferential treatment and increase its ability to penetrate the US market. However, according to the final conclusion of the DOC in the anti-dumping investigation, the majority of enterprises (accounting for 95.5% of the total export turnover of Vietnamese car tires to the US) are still determined not to sell dumping (not subject to anti-dumping duty). The remaining enterprises, holding about 4.5% of turnover, are subject to a tax rate of 22.3%.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Viet Nam, this is a positive result for Vietnamese tire manufacturers and exporters in the US market – the largest market for the tire manufacturing industry. This result is also thanks to the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s active exchange and dialogue with US authorities to prove that Vietnam doesn’t “currency manipulation”, dumping to create export advantages.
Regarding the US accusation, on May 27 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang strongly denied and affirmed: “Vietnam does not dump dumping nor does it. subsidize export car tires and not manipulate currency to gain an unfair advantage in international trade.”
