Thursday, January 10, 2013

Cheaper Chinese Bicycles?

This spring the European Commission has to conclude three trade issues with China for bicycles which are currently under investigation. As the outcome of these investigations could have a big impact on the bike sector in Europe, Bike Europe made an overview on what’s to come the next few months. In 2011, the European Union renewed the 48.5% anti-dumping duties on imports of Chinese bicycles for the third time. The duty was first introduced in 1992 and shall thus go into its 20th anniversary this year. In the meantime however, the European Union is carrying out no less than 3 additional investigations into Chinese bicycle imports. Only 5 months after having reaffirmed the anti-dumping duties against Chinese bicycle imports (October 2011), the European Commission initiated an interim review of these measures. The main reason for this review was that the Commission had found that the circumstances on which the measures were based, had changed. The Commission explicitly mentioned the abolition of the export quota system in January 2011, which until then stood in the way of market economy treatment for Chinese companies. Read on in Bike Europe. Velo Mondial is happy with these developments since it will make cyling more accessible.