USW: Flood Of Chinese Tires Washing Away U.S. Jobs

By Doug Cunningham

“What they’re doing is subsidizing their own industries for export. So they’re, in essence, selling at less than the cost of production into our market – which is illegal under trade policies. Over the years it’s cost a lot of jobs, both in the tire industry, the paper industry, the steel industry.”

Stan Johnson, Secretary-Treasurer of the United Steelworkers, talked about Chinese trade practices in truck and bus tires. The union has filed a new trade case against China seeking relief from millions of dumped truck and bus tires. The USW says these tires are flooding the U.S. market, washing away good family supporting American jobs.

[Stan Johnson]: “The Chinese economy was built upon export and they have tremendous over-capacity – particularly now that the Chinese economy has slowed down to some degree. So they’re flooding all of their excesses into the world market and primarily into the U.S. market because the U.S. market is the largest consumer market in the world.”

The union says American manufacturing is seeing growth in demand go offshore and U.S. industry isn’t able to benefit from strong demand. The USW wants strong action to prevent further harm to the U.S. manufacturing base.