EU slaps extra 5 year anti-dumping duties on China eBikes
It seems likely there’ll be extended discussion of international trading duties in 2025 and the European Commission has got out of the traps quickly this January with news it will extend anti-dumping and countervailing duties on imports of electric bikes (eBikes) from China for another five years.
Why so? The European Commission says it is to safeguard the jobs of 12,000 people directly employed in the EU’s eBike industry and that electric bikes are “vital for the EU’s green transition and sustainable mobility”.
The extension of measures follows an expiry review investigation by the Commission. This showed that eBike producers in China continue to benefit from unfair subsidies, said the Commission, and that imports into the EU were made at dumped prices: “As such, all legal requirements for the extension of duties were met.”
Measures on e-bikes from China – anti-dumping duties ranging from 10.3% to 70.1% and countervailing duties ranging from 3.9% to 17.2% – were first introduced in 2019. They have helped mitigate the injurious effect of unfairly subsidised and dumped Chinese imports, particularly for EU producers in the entry-level and mid-range markets, said the Commission: “The measures have also allowed new European companies to enter the market, as well as promoting further investment in technology development and in sustainable production methods.”
The news won’t be welcomed universally by the European bicycle industry, with the likes of LEVA-EU likely to object to the continuation.
It’s also hard to believe the European Commission’s decision won’t have some impact on the UK Government’s view on China’s eBikes. Discussion of levies on eBikes arriving in the UK from China have been underway post Brexit and indeed the Trade Remedies Authority has recommended that removal of levies, potentially bringing a lot more China eBikes into the UK market (something discussed at length in recent issues of CIN). With noises that the UK is looking to keep some standards in tandem with Europe’s to ease trade between the two trading, er, blocs, then it seems a sporting assumption that Europe’s decision to extend anti-dumping measure on China’s eBikes won’t go unnoticed.
Fans of international levies are expected to see a few being put into place by North America in the coming months.