Update on Anti-Dumping Procedures

BRUSSELS, Belgium - One of the major topics at the 2010 Taipei Int’l Cycle Show which started yesterday and which will close its doors next Saturday at 5:00 pm, is the anti-dumping duties on bikes and parts exported from China to Europe as well as on bikes exported from Vietnam.

By next July 15, 2010 these duties (48.5% on bikes and parts from China and 32.5% on bikes exported from Vietnam) will expire. Before that takes place the European Commission has to publish a ‘notice of expiry’. In other dumping matters such a notice has been published five to nine months before the actual expiry date.

Since the notice of expiry is overdue as it has not been published yet in the Official Journal of the European Union, tensions inside the global bike sector are rising. And with that rumours are spreading. One of such rumours going around in the halls where 2010 Taipei Cycle is taking place, stipulates that the Ministery’s of Economic Affairs of the 27 EU member states have launched a preliminary investigation on the current status of the bike market in Europe. This investigation is said to take place through the national bike industry associations like the ANCMA in Italy or the ZIV in Germany and will take 6 months. Rumours say that due to this investigation period the expiry date on the dumping duties for China and Vietnam is postponed for 6 months and stands now at December 15, 2010.

According to Moreno Fioravanti, Chairman of the European association for bike parts makers – COLIPED – these rumours are based on speculations. And not on actual facts. Piero Nigrelli, manager for the bike sector at Italian industry association ANCMA checked, assured Fioravanti in the presence of Bike Europe that there is no preliminary investigation in connection with the anti-dumping procedure currently taking place. He and Moreno Fioravanti say that the overdue term for the notice of expiry is related to bureaucratic affairs at the EU headquarter in Brussels.

What is becoming more clear however in all affairs related to the anti dumping procedure is that the European bike industry will pursue another 5 year term of anti-dumping duties on bikes exported from China.