Elimination of Dumping & Import Tariffs on All Bike Products?

TAIPEI, Taiwan – The Taiwan Bicycle Association in partnership with the Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI) has proposed to the World Trade Organization WTO worldwide tariff elimination on all bicycles and bike components.

At the root of the proposal is a view that the bike industry is 'green' and on that basis countries will be more open minded to the duty elimination.

The Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI) is a federation of industrial association representing majority of manufacturing business such as steel, textiles, chemicals, rubbers, bicycle and sporting goods in Taiwan. Similar to NAM in the US, CNFI is a country-level trade association consisting of 150 member associations.

The CNFI effort is devoted to eliminating sector tariffs (bicycle industry sector) through the WTO. In 2007 Taiwan filed a sectoral tariff elimination proposal to the WTO in the bicycle and related parts sector to eliminate tariffs among the WTO members.

US factories agree

The remaining significant US factories are not opposed to this proposal. However, in Europe the proposal will meet strong opposition from the industry associations COLIBI, COLIPED and EBMA.

The European industry associations for both bicycle assemblers and parts makers (COLIBI and COLIPED) are united in their strong opposition to any moves to remove the anti-dumping duty on bicycle parts from China which is currently under review and for which a decision must be made by the European Commission in February 2008.

COLIPED: “totally against the cancellation”

In November 2006, the EU announced a review of the 48.5% tariff. “COLIPED is totally against the cancellation of the anti-circumvention regulation which is working extremely well, and has been respected by the bicycle sector in Europe. There is no reason to take that regulation away- it's the key to preventing dumping of goods by China,” said Moreno Fioravanti, president of the Association of the European Parts & Accessories Industry in November 2006.

COLIBI: “very important to keep the duties in place”

Speaking as chairman of COLIBI, representing European bicycle manufacturers, Accell Group CEO René J. Takens added that: “It's very important for the European industry that the anti-dumping duties on parts remain in place. The reason there is anti-dumping on certain parts is to avoid circumvention, that is, people buying the parts from China and doing a small amount of assembly. The industry has an allowance to import the parts they need for their bicycles without duty, as long as they use less than a certain percentage of Chinese parts.”

EMBA: “flat out against it”

Equally adamant in his opposition to any moves to remove the AD duty is EBMA Chairman Brian Montgomery: “We're flat out against it: the bicycle industry in Europe is totally against changing a system which is working.”