Sessions praises Trade Commission’s decision to sanction China’s unfair tire trade

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July 15, 2015

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC. (Photo: Gage Skidmore)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. International Trade Commission announced Tuesday it would penalize Chinese tire producers for participating in unfair trade practices after Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and a small bipartisan group of lawmakers called attention to the issue.

The ITC found the producers to be guilty of the practice known as dumping—flooding the market with products at prices lower than the cost of production in order to drive out competition.

The decision will impose import tariffs and antidumping penalties on four Chinese tire and rubber companies.

“The International Trade Commission’s decision to impose relief from illegal Chinese tire imports is good news for Alabama workers,” Sessions said in a press release following the decision. “The ITC had already found that China was improperly subsidizing tire production in the past, but when that relief expired those unfair practices resumed and American workers suffered. The day is past when the United States can stand to see a single additional job lost due to unfair practices by our trading partners.”

Writing with fellow Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Sessions argued in an op-ed published by TheHilll.com that producers and workers making passenger vehicle and light truck tires in America are in danger because of China’s dumping of millions of subsidized tire imports.

“They undermine the principles of free trade and free enterprise by ignoring the rules that they promised to uphold,” the group said. “It’s time for our government to say: enough is enough.”

“The rules were carefully negotiated to ensure that companies and workers who make competitive products, at fair prices and of high quality, should be able to sell their products across the globe. China, in this industry and others, has decided to circumvent the rules in order to increase production and employment through an export-led growth model.”

The automotive industry is an ever-growing sector of Alabama’s economy and thanks to Mercedes, Honda, and Hyundai, the state produced almost one million cars last year alone.

Long before Alabama became an international car-making hub, the rubber and plastics industry had a strong foothold with several major tire plants. The Goodyear factory in Gadsden was founded in 1929 and Michelin’s Tuscaloosa factory dates to 1945. Today, three large plants – including Michelin’s Dothan facility – employ 3,720 Alabamians.