LEVA announces member states back EU Commission’s e-Bike import duties

LEVA-EU has announced that the majority of member states in the Trade Defence Instruments’ Committee have back the EU commission’s proposal to impose up to 73.9% duties on e-Bikes imported from China.

The decision came during a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.

Annick Roetynck, LEVA-EU Manager, responded to the decision: “We haven’t yet received detailed information on the outcome, but it’s highly regrettable that a majority of member states seem to have voted in favour of duties. There is no injury to European ‘manufacturers’. A closer look at the market shows that these manufacturers, many of which import components from China at a very large scale, are thriving.

“These duties are nothing but protectionism and will seriously damage over 150 European SMEs and penalise millions of European citizens. Last week, in two different letters to the commission, 60 importing SMEs, supported by 27 other European companies in the business as well as four MEPs from different political parties appealed to Commissioner Malmström to reconsider the duties, arguing they went against the Union interest.”

Roetynck stated that once the Commission’s Regulation is published, LEVA will consult with the EU importers on the next steps. According to her, potential measures will open the door to anti-circumvention, which would cause even more damage to the European e-Bike business.

LEVA says that this is not a case of dumping because “injury” is one of three essential conditions to impose duties, and EU producers are proven healthy by economic performance indicators established by the commission.

Figures reported in LEVA’s response to the proposed duties indicate that sales volume, production volume and production capacity are all up at least 20%, while return on investment is up 103%.

The association has been lobbying against the proposed duties since the issue came to fruition last year, and will now wait for the Commission’s regulation to be published.