The European tyre industry, which says it employs 75,000 people in 14 EU states, has said the tyres for cars and small trucks are being "dumped" or imported at unrealistically low prices, the European Commission said in a statement.

The EU has already imposed anti-dumping measures on imports of Chinese bus and lorry tyres.

In 2024, the EU market for car and small truck tyres was worth more than 18 billion euros ($20.4 billion), according to the EU.

"Today, the European Commission launched an investigation to assess whether anti-dumping measures are warranted on imports of tyres for passenger cars and light lorries from China," said the commission statement.

"If the investigation confirms that the EU tyre industry suffers from injury or threat of injury because of dumped imports from China, the commission may impose anti-dumping duties on imports if these are found to be in the interest of the EU."

The statement said the investigation could take 14 months but that "provisional anti-dumping measures may be imposed within eight months if dumping and consequent injury have been provisionally established."