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(BRUSSELS) – The EU extended Thursday anti-dumping duties on imported Chinese bicycles of 48.5% until 2024, a measure called for by European trade unions, bicycle manufacturers, small businesses and cyclists.
The extension follows a thorough investigation by the European Commission which established that Chinese manufacturers have continued dumping and would flood the EU market with dumped bicycles if the measures were discontinued.
Bicycles imported from Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Cambodia, Pakistan and the Philippines are also covered by these measures after previous investigations found that Chinese bicycles were passing by these countries to then be re-exported to the EU.
The anti-dumping measures were originally imposed in 1993 and have been extended several times since then. The anti-dumping duties go up to 48,5%. The review investigation initiated last year concluded that there was a strong likelihood of continuation of dumping and recurrence of injury should the measures lapse. The EU bicycle industry produces over 11 million bicycles across 22 Member States every year. EU bicycle producers provide 100,000 direct and indirect jobs.
The Commission had launched an expiry review of anti-dumping measures applicable to imports of bicycles from China in June 2018.
However, even with the measures, EU imports from China increased in recent years and dumping continued.
The latest EU decision was welcomed by the European Bicycle Manufacturers Association (EBMA).
“Without a level playing field, Chinese exporting producers would have flooded the EU market with dumped bicycles and rapidly driven the EU industry out of the market, which already happened in the USA and Japan,” said the EBMA’s Secretary General Moreno Fioravanti.
“China’s ever-expanding bicycle and e-bike manufacturing overcapacity is now almost five times larger than the total EU market of approximately 22 million bicycles and e-bikes per year,” he added. “Section 301 tariffs imposed by the US on many Chinese products, including bicycles, has led Chinese exporters to focus on dumping their overproduction in the EU market.”
Overall, the extension of the AD measures on dumped bicycles from China is estimated to save more than 100,000 direct and indirect EU jobs in over 900 SMEs working in bicycle, pedal-assist e-bikes and cycle components production in 24 of the 28 Member States. Recent EU trade defence measures on e-bikes have led to the re-shoring of thousands of jobs in this sector to Europe.
