1. Chinese exports of rubber additives to the United States and the possible impact of tariffs
1.1 Anti-aging agent TMQ exports to the United States
China is a major exporter of rubber auxiliaries, especially the proportion of accelerators and anti-aging agents in the exports is above 50%. In the list of additional tariffs initiated by the United States against China, the rubber additives involved are mainly the anti-aging agent 38123100 in the rubber additives, namely the mixture of 2,2,4-trimethyl-1,2-dihydroquinoline (TMQ) oligomer.
At present, Japan, the United States, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia are the top exporting countries of anti-aging agents TMQ. In recent years, the United States has increased its export proportion. In 2017, the export of anti-aging agent TMQ to the United States was 2417.1 tons, ranking the fifth. In 2018, the anti-aging agent TMQ exported to the United States ranked second at 5898.9 tons. In the first quarter of 2019, TMQ, an anti-aging agent exported to the United States, ranked first with 1997.5 tons.
Since March 2018, the export volume of anti-aging agent TMQ has shown a trend of significant increase, which will last until the first quarter of 2019. In late March 2018, the United States announced massive tariffs on imports from China based on the “301 investigation”.
In other words, since the US announced tariffs on Chinese imports, domestic exports of anti-aging agent TMQ have increased, but not by as much as a year ago. However, the absolute value of TMQ exports to the United States is still relatively small relative to the total amount of anti-aging agents exported to the United States.
1.2 The impact of anti-aging agent TMQ on US exports
From 2014 to 2018, the proportion of the export of anti-agents to the United States in the total export volume of rubber anti-aging agents has declined. Among them, the total export volume of rubber anti-aging agent in 2018 is 234500 tons, and the total export volume of anti-aging agent to the United States is 25400 tons, accounting for 10.8%.
The above mentioned export volume of anti-aging TMQ to the United States in 2018 accounts for 23.2% and only 2.5% of the total export volume of anti-aging agent to the United States. In other words, although the export of anti-aging agent TMQ to the United States has increased significantly, it still accounts for a low proportion in the total amount of anti-aging agent and has a small impact on the overall export of anti-aging agent.