Used Tires News-Deerfield Beach,Fl-The RMA is now US Tire Manufacturers Asssociation their members, enemy number one of the used tire retailer and used tire exporter.Well even with the “Big Bucks” they spent “LOBBYING” which I use loosely they have been dealt a defeat in Texas!
This organization should be under investigation by DOJ and FTC for violating U.S Anti Trust laws or worse.For the better part of three decades they have been trying to eliminate the sale of used tires.
They began in Venezuela continued throughout South America with a smear campaign and “Lobbying” (code word for bribe and or illegally influence) local officials,either by getting them elected to office or appointed and then using their authority to restrict or eliminate the sale of used tires.They tried in Puerto Rico and we made a “Constituional Challenge” in The Federal Court and to this day have a Permanent Injunction restraining Puerto Rico from interfering with interstate commerce the “Dormant Commerce Clause” and thus used tires sales in PR.
House Bill 2744 had been pushed through both the Texas House and Senate ,yet Governor Gregg Abbott vetoed it and said”Texas does not need to impose new criminal penalties on people who put tires on cars”.
The Governor gets it used tire dealers are in most cases new tire dealers who also repair tires something the USTMA and their members do not do in their retail stores.Used Tire dealers,flat Fix shops still repair and patch tires that are repairable.Instead of embracing the used tire industry and pushing for more training for all tire dealers USTMA has now begun to use it’s influence with TIA a group that represents tire dealers.We urge TIA to reconsider it’s recent shift in positon and work with used tire dealers.Let us not invent a category of “known versus unknown used tires” that is nonsense.