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President keeps trying to tire us out

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Tom Jackson

tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: September 16, 2009

As the equivalent of a utility infielder for a Land O' Lakes tractor sales and service outfit, Sean Mantler has the hands you would expect: soiled, callused, reliable and sturdy.

Recently re-employed after nine months on the sidelines - at only two-thirds of his previous income - Mantler was only inadvertently in the crosshairs when the Obama White House delivered its most recent late-Friday news dump.

But the man with the honest, hard-working hands is, nonetheless, taking it personally.

At issue is the eye-popping 35 percent tariff President Barack Obama slapped on tires made in China and imported into the United States. Why that irritates Mantler, 40, of Hudson, has little to do with his job at Gulf Coast Tractor and Equipment - although the trailer he was hauling for his employer rode on Chinese imports. His feelings have everything to do with his beloved heap on wheels - "My junker" - a 1977 Dodge van.

Mantler can only guess how many miles he's put on it - "It's on its third odometer" - but keeping it on the road, on his skinny budget, requires what some snooty folks would consider an unconscionable compromise.

The tires are Chinese imports, slapped on ancient rims precisely because their $50 price point wouldn't make a guy who earns $1,500 a month choose between new rubber and meat on the table. Add 35 percent, and maybe Mantler tries to squeeze out an extra 10,000 risk-taking miles.

"This is just out of control," says Mantler. "Tire prices are going to skyrocket."

China syndrome overblown?

The Wall Street Journal concurs, predicting price-sensitive shoppers - the prime consumer of low-end Chinese tires, dominant in the market - will be hardest hit. As Jim Mayfield, president of a large importer and distributor of Chinese tires based in Memphis, Tenn., told the Journal, "I think within the next 60 days you'll see some pretty significant price increases." Prices for "entry-level" tires could increase by 30 percent.

But not everyone in the tire business shares a crisis mentality. Lee Meredith, who operates Meredith Tire and Auto on U.S. 41, shrugs, saying, "We're probably all better off buying tires from Dayton instead of tires made in China."

Customers of Top Line Tire and Auto in Zephyrhills seem similarly predisposed. "People who come in here flat stay away from Chinese tires," says Top Line's Ron Chancey. "They don't like the press they get." In July 2007, Chinese imports were involved in a massive recall over tread-separation issues.

Entrepreneurial opportunity

Immediate beneficiaries of the tariff may be proprietors such as George Esparza, owner of Wheels and Specialties, and Victor Quiles, who runs Almighty Tires. Both Zephyrhills shops rely significantly on the sale of used tires, gleaned from body shops and dealerships recycling leased cars.

Most of the used tires he sells are premium brands that retain 75 percent of their tread life and sell at a fraction of the new tire price. Says Esparza, "I can put a set of used Michelins on a car for about $120." That's about 80 percent less than the same set new, and it's even lower than the pre-tariff price for all but the cheapest Chinese imports.

Looks like Mantler's junker may be in line for a tire upgrade, demonstrating, yet again, that government's primary product is the unintended consequence.

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