Economics 471 International Case Study:
President Obama’s 2009 Tire Tariff
(40 Minute PowerPoint Presentation)
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The purpose of this project is to give you the opportunity to study a case of dumping in the real world. Your
presentation will include both the political and the empirical dimensions of antidumping duties. This outline will guide
you in your preparation for the presentation.
The learning objective of this project is for you and your teams to present both the news and data that characterize the
dispute.
You are expected to produce a power point presentation that addresses each task outlined below in detail.
You must to identify the intentions of both countries involved and how each country attempted to achieve its
agenda.
You must identify winners and losers of the “legislation.”
Here is the minimum amount of information you are required to collect
Task Suggested Source
Search news articles to provide Various web sites, Lexus Nexus, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Wikipedia. China
background on the specific anti Dailey etc
dumping duty (including a time
line).
Provide a timeline and analysis Go to the USITC website http://www.usitc.gov/.
of the USITC investigation and 1) Describe what is involved in a USITC investigation
ruling. Click on ABOUT THE USITC Import Injury Investigations
2) Find the Tire Investigation
Click on IMPORT INJURY AD/CVD INVESTIGATIONS COMPLETED.
Find the case involving “Certain Passenger Vehicle and Light Truck Tires from China”.
a) Read the “Notice of Institution” and identify which subheadings of the
harmonized tariff schedule are affected.
b) Read the Questionnaires and note the detail of the information required from
each domestic and foreign producer!
c) Study the hearing transcript (warning: its long!) and identify the reasons given
for protection. Identify all the reasons that do/don’t relate to
I. tires
II. a protective tariff,
III. other reasons
d) Outline the determinations regarding Market Disruption
e) Outline the Remedy
I. link the proposed remedies to the determination (how are the remedies
supposed to fix the injury?)
f) Read the President’s proclamation
I. which imports are effected, for how long, what the duty, and why it was
imposed?
II. How does the president link policy to injury and remedy?
Task Suggested Source
The US is a member of the I) To understand the role of the WTO, go to
WTO. Outline the WTO’s http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/fact1_e.htm
official dispute settlement 1) click on SETTLING DISPUTES on the left side bar and read the sub sections “A
summary and all related UNIQUE CONTRIBUTION and THE PANEL PROCESS.
documents position and its 2) Click on the AGREEMENTS section on the left side bar and read the sub sections
ruling. “OVERVIEW”, “TARIFFS”, and “ANTI DUMPING, SUBSIDIES”
Outlines how WTO and US a. Why does the WTO investigate?
gov’t/USITC positions differ b. What does the WTO investigate?
II) Go to the WTO website http://www.wto.org/, on the top of the page, click on
“TRADE TOPICS” DISPUTE SETTLEMENT THE DISPUTES find DISPUTE CASES. On
the left side bar, click on “DISPUTES CHRONOLOGICALLY” and find the dispute (DS399 --
date/title are similar to the USITCs). Read the case summary and click on the “ALL
DOCUMENTS” on the right side of the page. Create a zip file and download all documents
in English. Choose the option to include and index file, and choose the option to
download documents in English. Open the index file once you downloaded the zip
1) What does China claim to be the problem with the US action
2) How does the US defend itself?
3) What is the WTO’s final ruling. Be very specific and detailed about the reasons
for its ruling!.
Obtain import data (both Use either a UW computer or log in remotely to UW libraries to enter the UN Comtrade
quantity and value) from the database. On the main UW library web page, type “COMTRADE” into the search feature.
United Nations Commodity It will produce search results. Click on UN COMTRADE Connect to this title online;
Trade Statistics Database in UW restricted database DATA QUERY BASIC SELECTION
order to track the volume of
Chinese tire imports to the US 1) Click on the COMMODITY tab. In Step 1 SELECT SOURCE, indicate
and (imputed) prices for the 5 COMMODITIES SEARCH. In Step 2 SELECT ITEMS indicate TYRES in SITC REV.3.
years before, during and 5 years Hit SEARCH. Be sure to click on the “+” signs to find the right tyre category.
after the duties were imposed. 2) Click on the REPORTERS tab and select the USA (make sure to select ADD)
3) Click on the PARTNERS tab and select CHINA (make sure to select ADD)
4) Click on the YEARS tab and select the years 2000 – 2009 (select ADD)
Isolate the 5 most important 5) Click on the OTHERS tab and select IMPORT
claims by the WTO, USITC, 6) Click SUBMIT QUERY
China and US and comment
how the data relates to those Graph the data for a) Trade Value, b) Trade Quantity and c) Price (Value/Quantity).
claims 1) Comment on how the duty affected a), b), c) and what this implies for trade
theory.
2) Isolate the 5 most important claims by the WTO, USITC, China and US and
comment how the data relates to those claims
Obtain employment data from Go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website http://www.bls.gov/. Click on SUBJECT
the Bureau of Labor Statistics AREAS NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT. On the left side bar, click on “CES
for aggregate number of hours Databases” click on ONE-SCREEN DATA SEARCH for EMPLOYMENT, HOURS, AND
worked in the affected industry EARNINGS.
in the 5 years prior, during and ii. In field (1) click on “All employees, Thousands”
5 years post duty imposition. iii. In field (2) click on “Nondurable goods”
iv. In field (3) click on “32326210 Tires”
v. Field (4) is prefilled
Field (5) click on “Get Data”
1) Comment on the effect of the duty on labor in the US. Did it have its designed effect?
OVERALL ANALYSIS 1) Identify ALL winners and losers of the duty.
2) Who do you think lobbied for and against the duty? (Extra credit: Can you
identify the PAC contributions of the beneficiaries of the duty?)
3) What additional data would you want to collect to sharpen your implications that
you derived from the BLS and UNComTrade?