The International Trade Commission of South Africa has announced that it has launched a circumvention investigation into tyres from Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Commission is working on the hypothesis that these three Southeast Asian countries may be acting as conduits to get around antidumping measures applied to tyres from China.
This announcement is in line with a growing narrative around Chinese producers using third-countries, particularly in Southeast Asia to circumvent trade remedies. Of note, genuine Vietnamese producers and exporters often get caught up in these investigations. Whereas they can apply for separate antidumping rates, this still consumes time and resources that many local firms, on the back of broader economic challenges, may not have.
In a US Department of Commerce antidumping case against paper plates from Vietnam earlier this year, of the six firms from which the DOC requested pricing information, just two responded. Of those only one provided enough information to qualify for its own antidumping rate.
See also: Vietnam Trade Remedies News