WASHINGTON New taxes or curbs on Chinese tire imports could have a catastrophic impact on Les Schwab Tire Centers, an attorney for the Bend tire chain told federal officials at the U.S. Trade Representatives Office on Friday.

A lawyer for Les Schwab testified at a hearing on Friday, along with officials from tire manufacturer unions, wholesalers, Chinese tire companies and economists, on the impact of Chinese imports on the U.S. tire industry.

The Trade Representatives Office will make a recommendation to President Barack Obama about whether a deluge of imported Chinese tires are competing unfairly with U.S.-made models and putting American tire employees out of work.

But tire distributors and retailers, like Les Schwab, argued that their industry could lose thousands of jobs if the U.S. limits Chinese imports. Les Schwab attorney Michael House said U.S. tire-makers arent willing to make the lower-cost, private- label tires that come from China.

They are simply not available from the U.S. producers, House said. Les Schwab is thus dependent on imports for the survival of its business.

The Trade Representatives Office report is due by Sept. 2, with a final decision by the White House expected in mid-September.

The number of Chinese tires entering the U.S. has shot up from about 14.5 million in 2004 to more than 45 million last year, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.

The United Steelworkers Union, which represents tire plant workers, filed a petition alleging unfair trade practices earlier this year. In July, the trade commission sided with the union and recommended three years of tariffs on Chinese tires, starting at 55 percent the first year and gradually stepping down to 35 percent. A tariff is essentially a tax on imported products, to make them more expensive compared with U.S.-made products.

The steelworkers union originally asked the White House to cut Chinese tire imports by more than half, to 21 million.

Les Schwab attorney House didnt directly answer a question from a panelist on Friday about how many employees it might lose and other details of the fallout from a new tax on Chinese tires. In comments the company filed with the Trade Representatives Office, though, it warned of thousands of layoffs in the downstream tire wholesale and retail sectors.

If the Commission imposes the proposed tariffs, these downstream businesses may be forced to close their doors or make cutbacks in order to weather the burden of the import restrictions, thereby putting tens of thousands of domestic jobs at risk, Les Schwabs brief said.

Chinese tires now make up about a third of tire imports to the U.S. About 90 million tires were imported from other foreign countries, according to the steelworkers unions petition. In comparison, about 160 million tires were made in the U.S. in 2008.

The vast majority of Les Schwabs $1.6 billion in annual tire sales comes from private-brand tires, as opposed to name brands like Goodyear or Michelin, the company wrote in its brief to the ITC.

Those brands are more likely to come from China, Mexico and other foreign plants, although they are also made in the U.S.

Les Schwab, which has its headquarters in Bend, employs more than 6,000 people and has 400 stores throughout the West, House testified.

Union representatives and tire sellers clashed over what a new tariff would accomplish. While the steelworkers union argued that U.S. tire plants have enough excess capacity to fill the void in Chinese imports that a big tax would create, retailers said U.S. tire companies are simply not interested in selling cheaper private-brand tires.

In Les Schwabs experience, backed up by the record the (International Trade Commission) compiled, it is clear the U.S. producers, the majors, have no interest in making private-label tires, House said.

U.S. tire companies have stayed neutral in the trade dispute, which tire sellers pointed to as proof that the manufacturers arent concerned about Chinese imports. Union officials speculated that tire companies, which also have factories in China, are wary of crossing the Chinese government but offered no evidence of that assertion.