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In response some to Rich's comment above, but also as to why our tire companies need 3 years of protection. In my opinion -- A big reason is because the tire companies have moved all of their low-end tire manufacturing equipment to plants out of country. By 'low-end' I don't mean cheap tires necessarily either -- I mean all tires used on passenger cars as well as light trucks.
Topeka KS used to make tires for Hummers, as well as some passenger car and light-truck tires. As long as I've been here in Kansas (since mid 1981) they have also made heavy equipment tires for road construction equipment, etc. Within the last couple of years, and with the blessing of the unions as they negotiated to keep jobs, they have moved more heavy equipment tire manufacturing into the plant as they have stopped and moved the production of car, light truck, and military tires to other sites (read - off-shore). As they have done that, other locations have seen their plants shut down, stripped of equipment (or just left to rust away), etc.
Now, I do believe that we have the tire building technology and expertise, we have the work force, we just don't have the equipment and usable plants to bring the production up quickly. I remember reading some time back that one of the tire companies said it would take a minimum of 12 to 18 months to bring an already built structure back up to standards, equip it, hire / rehire workers etc., before it was able to produce any quantity of tires. This was in response to a question concerning their supporting the contract for tires on the military's Hummer vehicles and what would happen if trouble occurred over seas. Guess we will see if it occurs.
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