The United States on Wednesday set large preliminary import duties on car and light-truck tires made in China, saying producers were dumping them into the U.S. market.
The U.S. Commerce Department said it would begin collecting anti-dumping duties of between 19.17% and 87.99% on the tires, depending on the producer/exporter.
Most of the dozens of companies affected by the ruling will face duties of 27.72%.
For some producer/exporters, the duties will be applied retroactively to cover the previous 90 days, the department said.
That decision came in response to the claim by the petitioner in the case, a U.S. rubber workers' union, that their complaint was in response to "critical circumstances" affecting their industry.
The duties hit tire imports from China that were valued at $2.1 billion in 2013, according to the department.
The anti-dumping judgment is only preliminary, and a final determination is scheduled to be made in June.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2015
