Background
President Obama will soon be required to decide whether to impose quotas or other restrictions against imports of passenger and light truck tires from
l On April 20th, 2009
The United Steelworkers, qualifying as an "entity" "representative of an industry" under Section 201 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974, petitioned the Obama Administration to enact a temporary "safeguard" remedy to protect the manufacture and sale of low-grade commercial tires in the
The law amended the Trade Act of 1974 by adding a new section 421 providing that,
If a product of the People's Republic of China is being imported into the United States in such increased quantities or under such conditions as to cause or threaten to cause market disruption to the domestic producers of a like or directly competitive product, the President shall, in accordance with the provisions of this section, proclaim increased duties or other import restrictions with respect to such product, to the extent and for such period as the President considers necessary to prevent or remedy the market disruption.
The USW represents about 15,000 tire workers at 13 plants in nine states. Arguing that domestic production of consumer tires declined by over 25 percent during 2004-2008, and that the Chinese producers' share of the consumer tire market in the United States increased from less than five percent to more than 17 percent, the USW requested that China be limited to an annual import quota of 21 million consumer passenger tires for a three-year period. This would limits imports from
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