European Commission Imposes 11.3% Dumping Duty on Shimano Hub Gears

BRUSSELS, Belgium (October 24) - The European Commission has announced the imposition of an 11.3% dumping duty on Shimano hub gears imported from Japan. The additional duty will come in force as soon as it will have been announced in the EU's Official Journal which is expected within a couple of days. The dumping duty is imposed for the usual term of five years. The imposed duty is the result of the complaint lodged by SRAM Corporation in July 2000. Since then the bicycle industry tried everything to avoid the duties which, according to a reaction on the imposed duty by the Dutch RAI industry association, will lead to higher prices for bicycles. Also other major industry players like the German buying association ZEG earlier expressed their concerns for the effects of the imposed duties for the European bicycle industry. Despite all these efforts, the EU Commission and the country representatives decided to impose the 11.3% anti-dumping duty. Eight of the EU's fifteen country representatives voted in favour of the duty, while the other seven voted against. In an official reaction, Shimano Europe states, "We are very disappointed that this decision has been taken despite major opposition from the whole bicycle industry across Europe. We can only hope that the effect on the entire industry will be less than expected. We are grateful to the numerous people, companies and associations who were against duties and who took an active stance towards the EU and the general public by expressing their views and concerns. Whatever the final impact of the anti-dumping duty, Shimano will keep on developing and investing in internal hub gears, as we strongly believe they represent a major part of the future bicycle market. We look forward to continuing our excellent co-operation with you and wish our partners and customers every success in their future business." SRAM Europe general manager Martin van Beek stated about the imposition of the dumping duty on Shimano hub gears, "SRAM is confident that this decision will help to restore a fair business environment and will in turn stimulate further innovative product development in Europe. SRAM is dedicated to becoming the most valuable supplier to our customers by providing products that will help to sell more bikes. The EU decision is an important step in ensuring that unfair pricing practices will not prevent SRAM from achieving this objective. SRAM feels the anti-dumping duty of 11.3% is low relative to the commission's finding of 36% dumping, however, we support the action of the commission and feel this is a step forward in restoring a fair, competitive environment." (JO)