WASHINGTON - Today, Reps. Bruce Westerman (AR-04) and Brian Higgins (NY-26) announced the introduction of the Protect American Tire Workers Act (H.R. 5593). The bipartisan bill makes critical updates to the Generalized System Preference (GSP) trade program to protect American tire producers like Sumitomo, Goodyear, Yokohama, Bridgestone, Titan Tire, and Kumho by excluding certain tire products from the program, to prevent imports from flooding the domestic market.
“The GSP is the largest and oldest U.S. trade preference program. Unfortunately, some countries have chosen to abuse the program to illegally dump their tire products on the market. I’m proud to introduce this common-sense legislation alongside Congressman Brian Higgins to correct this disparity and exempt certain tire products from the GSP, ensuring a more level playing field in the domestic market for our local manufacturers, like the Texarkana Goodyear facility in the 4th District,” said Congressman Westerman.
“GSP was put in place to promote economic growth in developing countries, while supporting trade priorities that benefit our own economy, but outdated rules are putting American tire manufacturers at risk,” said Congressman Higgins. “However, it is in desperate need of an update, as some countries in this long-standing trade preference program are saturating the market with tire products, which hurts local manufacturers like Sumitomo in Western New York. I am proud to join Congressman Westerman in introducing this bipartisan bill. It is an important step in protecting union workers and strengthening our trade programs in a way that helps our economy continue to grow.”
Background:
Established by the Trade Act of 1974, the GSP program promotes economic development in developing countries by eliminating duties on thousands of products imported from 119 designated countries and territories. However, the program is since expired and is in need of critical updates to ensure that it remains aligned with US trade goals, including the promotion of fair labor practices, sound environmental policy, and human rights across the world.
Under the GSP program there has been a significant increase in tire imports. According to the United Steel Workers (USW), the largest union in tire manufacturing, volumes of tire-related imports increased by nearly 30 percent between 2016 and 2019. In 2019 import volumes totaled $462,672,880. This increase is competing directly against US manufacturers, undercutting domestic profitability, and impacting employment among USW workers at tire production plants across the country.
The Protect American Tire Workers Act would update the GSP program to add tire articles to the import-sensitive list, making the products ineligible for the program and discouraging countries from illegally flooding the market.
Some GSP countries are now the sites of tire plants built as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, such as Serbia. Additionally, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand represent significant tire import volumes under the GSP program – all of which have well-documented labor and environmental abuses.
The Protect American Tire Workers Act adds another layer of protection against threats to domestic tire manufacturers. Reps. Higgins and Westerman have worked with USW to take the threat of increased dumping and subsidized tire imports seriously. USW has supported several successful anti-dumping and countervailing (AD/CVD) petitions against China and India. Current petitions against Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam are expected conclude in June or July of this year. Successful petitions and investigations have revealed that these illegal practices have lowered domestic sales, reducing hours and decreasing employment in the industry.