A day after a massive tire recall in the United States, the Chinese tire maker has accused its American importer of distortion.

Foreign Tire Sales Inc. announced a recall of 255,000 tires on Wednesday, saying the tires manufactured by Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. were defective because they lacked a gum strip, a key safety feature that prevents tread separation by binding the belts of a tire to each other. The importer said some tires did have a gum strip, but it was half the expected width.

Foreign Tire Sales "distorted the facts and applied for a tire recall with the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) by using actions that were not objective," the Chinese company said in a statement e-mailed to the Associated Press.

The New Jersey-based importer has been sued by the families of two men killed in a van crash in August 2006. The lawsuit said the van's tires were made by Hangzhou Zhongce.

The tire company, China's second largest, said the U.S. company has issued conflicting accounts of the accident to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

It said Foreign Tire Sales first blamed the accident on a defect in Hangzhou Zhongce tires. Then it said that only three of the tires on the van were made by the company, and the fourth by another manufacturer. 

It's possible, Hangzhou Zhongce said, that the other tire could have caused the crash.

At the end of July, a third account was offered when the importer cited a police report that said the accident itself could have caused the tire damage.

"From these three different explanations of the same case, it's clear that FTS is using nonexistent facts to mislead the public and is trying to achieve commercial gain by getting people's sympathy," said a statement from Hangzhou Zhongce.

The company said earlier it fully co-operated with NHTSA and found no evidence the tires had any structural defects or lacked safety features.

Chinese regulators said last month they had determined the tires met American safety standards.

Tires not sold in Canada

The recalled tires were not sold in Canada, Transport Canada spokesperson Jessie Chauhan told CBCNews.ca.

"Transport Canada has conducted compliance audit testing on similar model light truck tires to those addressed by the original recall letter to the NHTSA," Chauhan said. "At this time, our physical evidence indicates that the tires comply with our safety standard and that there have been no tread separations in Canada."

Chauhan said the department has recently received many inquiries about Chinese tires, "however, most of these are from people looking for information and not regarding actual failures."

Anyone with tire safety problems should contact Transport Canada.

With files from the Associated Press