EU To Review Dumping Duty on Bike Parts From China

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Commission may lift anti-dumping duty on bicycle parts from China following a review announced November 28, 2006 in the Official Journal of the European Union. The duty has been in place since 1997, imposed due to fears of circumvention of the duty on complete bikes. In the interim, many companies have been granted exemption from the duty, the latest list being published on November 10, 2006. The Commission says that it hasn't seen any circumvention taking place as result of these exemptions, so it has decided to place the tariff under a comprehensive review, with a decision due in 15 months.
 The anti-dumping duty on complete bikes has been in force since 1993, but wily European importers and Chinese producers were found to have engaged in practices including the infamous "A+B" container scam, whereby bikes were shipped in knocked down form that required only the most rudimentary assembly. The EU duly slapped anti-dumping duties on Chinese parts, to the chagrin of many companies in the Union whose business suffered as a result. A long list of European firms have successfully petitioned for exemption from the parts duty on an individual basis, and the Commission continues to receive further requests. The Official Journal announcement states that: "There are no apparent indications of circumvention practices by companies having been granted an exemption. Furthermore, the Commission has at its disposal sufficient prima facie evidence that if the extension of the measures on imports of bicycles to imports of certain bicycle parts was removed, there would be no continuation or recurrence of circumvention practices." Consequently, the Commission investigation will: "Assess the need for the continuation of the extension of the anti-dumping duty imposed on bicycles originating in the PRC to imports of certain bicycle parts from the PRC."  The Commission invited all Community producers/assemblers to provide information covering a range of areas including annual turnover and amount of Chinese-made parts used over the past four years, for possible inclusion in a sample to be used in the investigation. The deadline for submitting the information is 40 days from the publication of the notice in the Official Journal on November 28, 2006.
Full details are available by searching for the Official Journal notice C289 at the following URL: http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/JOIndex.do (TK)