A US company has filed a countervailing duty petition with the US Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission against a class of tyre exported by Sri Lanka, China and India.

Sri Lanka’s Industry and Commerce Ministry said the petition was filed by Illinois-based Titan International Inc. on pneumatic off-the-road (OTR) tyres from the 
three countries. 

Titan International has alleged that imports from China and India are being dumped in the U.S. market and imports from all three countries are benefitting from government subsidies and the imports are causing material injury to the domestic industry producing OTR tyre industry. 

“…our petitions address tyres from China which enter mounted on a wheel or rim. We have also added India and Sri Lanka to this new action,” Titan International Chairman/CEO Maurice Taylor was quoted as saying.  

In 2007, Titan International won antidumping and countervailing duties on OTR tyres from China.

Sri Lanka’s Exports Development Board however has assured the local rubber industry of assistance in the matter with the help of the Treasury, Central Bank and Lankan missions abroad.

Meanwhile, the rubber exports have lobbied the government to remove the 15 percent export tax imposed on exports to China, the world’s largest rubber consumer. 

They claim that such a tax makes Sri Lankan rubber uncompetitive in the Chinese market as competitors such as Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia do not face such taxes. 

Natural rubber is Sri Lanka’s third largest export. In 2014, exports of various rubber products accounted for more than US $1.7 billion.