Competition in the dry van and reefer trailer market just kicked up a notch.
Last Thursday the recently formed American Trailer Manufacturers Coalition (ATMC) — which includes Great Dane Trailers, Stoughton Trailers and Wabash National, and is supported by Strick Trailers — filed antidumping/countervailing (AD/CVD) petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission in response to imports of dumped and subsidized dry van and reefer trailer products entering the U.S. from China, Canada and Mexico.
More than 50 trailer importers are listed on the petition, including Hyundai Translead, Utility Trailers of Mexico, Manac, Fruehauf and more.
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ATMC reports the American trailer industry directly supports nearly 10,000 U.S. jobs and indirectly supports approximately 50,000 U.S. jobs. ATMC states its members employ thousands of workers in Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin. However, the coalition states unfair foreign trade practices are forcing many U.S. trailer manufacturing facilities to operate at less than half of production capacity.
“Trade relief is necessary to remedy the injurious effects of unfairly traded van trailer products coming in from Mexico, China and Canada that are severely hindering the ability of coalition members to compete fairly,” says Robert E. DeFrancesco, III, counsel to the American Trailer Manufacturers Coalition. “The application of antidumping and countervailing duties will level the playing field and save America’s trailer manufacturing industry.”
Under the terms of the petition, antidumping duties are intended to offset the amount by which a product is sold at less than fair value, or “dumped,” in the United States. The margin of dumping is calculated by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Estimated duties in the amount of the dumping are collected from importers at the time of importation.
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Countervailing duties are intended to offset unfair subsidies that are provided by foreign governments and benefit the production of a particular good. The U.S. International Trade Commission, an independent agency, will determine whether the domestic industry is materially injured or threatened with material injury by reason of the unfairly traded imports.
The Department of Commerce will determine whether to initiate the investigations within 20 days of ATMC’s Nov. 20, filing, and the International Trade Commission will reach a preliminary determination of material injury or threat of material injury within 45 days. The entire investigative process will take approximately one year, with final determinations of dumping, subsidization and injury likely occurring in late 2026. However, duties can attach to imports of the subject van-type trailers at the time of the preliminary determinations in the case, or even earlier.
Alleged dumping margins are between 223-297% from Canada, 209-431% from Mexico and 362-1,363% from China.
ATMC states unfair trade practices have already resulted in hundreds of job cuts for American companies, putting the entire trailer industry at risk. The coalition states its AD/CVD petitions aim to “mitigate the flood of dumped and subsidized van trailer imports in order to preserve this critical American industry.”
The petition follows a similar investigation in the brake drum market, in which the government levied duties on producers in China and Türkiye.
