Vietnam's Bike Exports Hit by Dumping Suits

HANOI, Viet Nam (Aug 11) - Vietnam bicycle exports have reportedly been hit by dumping duties in the potential markets of the European Union and Canada, said the Ministry of Trade. The ministry's statistics reported the country, in the first seven months of this year, earned only US$101 million from bicycle exports, a decrease of up to 30 % over the same period last year. Vice chairman of the Vietnam Bicycle and Motorcycle Association (VBMA) Le Anh Tuan said the reduction was unavoidable as exports faced dumping law suits. Canadian authorities have started investigating whether Vietnam has been dumping bikes on the Canadian market following a petition filed by the Canadian Bicycle Manufacturers Association late last year. Nineteen Vietnamese bicycle producers are involved in the lawsuit. In the European market, the EU imposed an anti-dumping tariff of 15.8 to 34.5 % on Vietnamese bicycles in July, which had an immediate negative effect on Vietnam's bike exports. In July the EU bike market fetched $10 million against a total of $18 million in June. Most of defendants in the dumping lawsuits are foreign invested enterprises, mainly Taiwanese who have invested in Vietnam's bike industry since 2001 to capitalise on the country's cheap labour force. Following this investment Vietnam has become one of the region's outstanding bike exporters instead of a major bike importer. The difficulties caused by the anti-dumping law suits are likely to lead domestic bike producers to cut their production capacity and turn to other markets to avoid the high tariffs, the VBMA said. The VBMA forecast turnover of the country's bike exports this year will be $160 to 180 million compared to last year's $260 to 270 million.