After brexit, what will be the anti-dumping duty on bicycles?
Source： Release time：2021-07-21
In January 2021, the British Parliament officially passed the brexit agreement. On January 29, the European Parliament passed the brexit agreement. The two sides agreed that Britain would officially leave the EU on January 31. After three and a half years of politics and public opinion, the brexit drama of Britain finally came to an end.
It has been 47 years since Britain joined the European Union in 1973. It can't be done in a moment. Considering that there are many details to be negotiated in brexit, the two sides preset a one-year transition period. During this period, Britain can still follow the existing EU regulations, and must pay membership fees, but no longer enjoy membership. If the two sides complete the negotiation within one year, Britain will officially leave the EU on January 1, 2021.
For the bicycle industry, the EU has imposed high anti-dumping duties on bicycles from China since 1993, which will continue for another five years in 2019, and also began to impose high double anti-dumping (countervailing and anti-dumping) trade penalty tariffs on electric bicycle products from China in 2019. For more than 20 years, This will make it difficult for Chinese bicycle manufacturers, including Taiwan funded enterprises, to export to the EU market. Now that the UK leaves the EU, it is no longer a member of the EU. After the transition period, the EU trade regulations are no longer applicable, which means that it is no longer bound by the EU anti-dumping sanctions. It can be said that it is a major breakthrough and business opportunity for bicycles and electric bicycles produced and manufactured in China. All the operators are gearing up and actively layout. However, the situation has changed recently, and the industry must pay close attention to the follow-up development.
In 2018, after the British government conducted a call for evidence investigation on Chinese imported bicycles and electric bicycles, it proposed that after the formal brexit of the UK at the end of the transition period at the end of 2020, the anti-dumping duties on Chinese imported bicycles and electric bicycles should be terminated. The survey results show that the market share of bicycle production in the UK is less than 1%, which has also become a key measurement and decision-making indicator. However, according to the letter sent by the British Cycling Association (BA) to its members in mid February, it is no longer fully determined that the anti-dumping duty sanctions imposed by the UK on bicycles and electric bicycles imported from China will be terminated after the transition period. The previous termination decision will be challenged, especially for some bicycle products, and electric bicycle products are also likely.
The British Cycling Association pointed out that the reason is that the market share of the production and sales of self-made bicycles in the UK accounted for less than 1% during the previous search survey, which was pointed out to be inconsistent with the facts and seriously underestimated! According to the most credible estimates (including those of the British Cycling Association), the market share of self-produced bicycles in the UK is nearly 5%. People familiar with the matter pointed out that recently, Ba members proposed that the market share of self-produced bicycles was seriously underestimated. Taking 2018 as an example, the output of bicycles in the UK was estimated to be 117000. If the production and sales of bicycles in the UK market were estimated to be 3 million, the domestic output accounted for 4%. In fact, the import figure of bicycles in the UK in 2018 was much lower, only about 2.2 million, This means that the market share of self-produced products is as high as 5.3%! In the part of electric bicycle products, after the certificate search survey in 2018, the output of the UK has also increased significantly. It is estimated that the market share of electric bicycles in the UK is also more than 1%.
In view of this, the British trade remedy Investigation Bureau and the international trade remedy Bureau both appealed to the British industry to provide relevant evidence and figures to the trade remedy Bureau for evaluation as soon as possible. The products include ad287 bicycles, ad643 electric bicycles and as646 electric bicycles. This means that the decision originally proposed to terminate the imposition of anti-dumping duties on Chinese bicycle products will be revised. The British Cycling Association pointed out that although some members support the termination of anti-dumping sanctions and some hope to continue to implement anti-dumping sanctions, the association has always maintained a neutral position and tried to provide relevant channels for members to express their positions.
