EBMA files an anti dumping complaint on chinese e-bikes.

[Kudoscycles]

The European Bicycle Manufacturers Association has filed an anti-dumping complaint with the European Commision.....claiming cheap chinese e-bikes are flooding the EU market.
This is typical of the EU,if you cant compete,call it 'dumping' then put a massive tariff on the product to protect the EU manufacturers.
I am not surprised,its always amazed me that e-bikes only attract 6% duty and vanilla bikes 55%duty.
I suppose one of the benefits of Brexit could be that we can set our own import tariffs in the UK and not abide by the necessity to tariff e-bikes to this extent,I dont know what the tariff would be under WTO rules.
It would make customs checks at Calais and on the Irish border interesting....Eire e-bike customers wouldnt get a bus into the north and ride back across the border without declaring the duty payable on their new e-bike would they,hehe !!!!
Perhaps someone could do a link to the article.....'European Industry files anti-dumping complaint on e-bike imports from China'.
KudosDave

 

[anotherkiwi]

The EU manufacturers will have to come up to the plate and offer a range of bikes at prices people from different income brackets can afford. Decathlon has been trying and so has Intersport - I think they may be the lobbyists behind this call for tarifs.

 

[tommie]

Eire e-bike customers wouldnt get a bus into the north and ride back across the border without declaring the duty payable on their new e-bike would they,hehe !!!!

No, much easier than that... what they will do is walk into the rear entrance of the store (in Eire), shimmy across to the front sales counter (in the UK), make purchase, then wheel said bicycle to the rear, hop aboard and ride away rejoicing!

Just an example, but this will happen on a massive scale on a variety of goods if theres savings to be made -

Present Border fuel laundering depots a case in point..

 

[Kudoscycles]

What has made this worse for the EU bike manufacturers is the strength of the Euro which makes EU exports expensive and sucked in a load of cheap imports from Asia.
However,there are a lot of 'EU manufactured' bikes which appear to be EU but in reality they are badge engineered Chinese origin,those guys wont be happy...I have seen many EN15194 certificates with SFS Shanghai testing,hehe!!!!
KudosDave

 

[anotherkiwi]

They use Chinese motors and batteries (and tyres and gears and...) but they are assembled to EU made frames in the EU. Bafang even prints "B'Twin" on the LCD case, isn't that nice of them? I have a KT LCD-3 with Cyclotek screen printed on it!

 

[MikelBikel]

http://www.bike-eu.com/laws-regulations/artikel/2013/10/new-gsp-import-duty-free-bikes-from-philippines-1018238
Maybe not just China, new competition on the block.

 

[flecc]

Perhaps someone could do a link to the article.....'European Industry files anti-dumping complaint on e-bike imports from China'.
KudosDave

Link to article
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[Wisper Bikes]

Also worth considering....

Didn't the Chinese develop the ebike over the years the European bike manufacturers didn't want to know? Now the European manufacturers have realised how mistaken they were, and have started to manufacture. Incredibly, they are now saying that the Chinese are taking their business from them!!! Surly they have got it completely the wrong way around?

All the best, David

 

[flecc]

Didn't the Chinese develop the ebike over the years the European bike manufacturers didn't want to know? Now the European manufacturers have realised how mistaken they were, and have started to manufacture. Incredibly, they are now saying that the Chinese are taking their business from them!!! Surly they have got it completely the wrong way around?

It's even worse, Europe got in first but completely failed to develop e-bikes:

1922: Heinzmann launched their first hub motor, Dutch Philips also prototyped one that year and failed to bring it to market. It took Heinzmann almost a century to bring out a second version in the third millennium.

Early 1980s: Two different crank drive English e-bikes were put onto the market, but as ever the companies failed to develop them so one disappeared. The other was overtaken by the superior Oriental designs in the late 1990s and they eventually gave up making them over a decade later.
.

 

[Woosh]

talk about anti-dumping against Chinese e-bikes is a bit premature. There are 4 conditions for the European Comission to consider:

1. the export price is below Chinese local market price
2. the products must be in direct competition with EU made products.
3. the Chinese products must cause injury to local producers
4. the levy must not be against the community interest

I can't see which Chinese e-bike meets all of these 4 conditions.

 

[Kudoscycles]

talk about anti-dumping against Chinese e-bikes is a bit premature. There are 4 conditions for the European Comission to consider:

1. the export price is below Chinese local market price
2. the products must be in direct competition with EU made products.
3. the Chinese products must cause injury to local producers
4. the levy must not be against the community interest

I can't see which Chinese e-bike meets all of these 4 conditions.

Woosh....The EU do whatever is necessary to protect EU manufacturers....they ignore all those considerations,slap a tariff on and then get you to argue it afterwards.
I got hit with an anti dumping duty on alloy road wheels...I tried to lobby the EU to get the wheels excluded....
1. My wheels are not sold in China and by OEM prices were quite expensive.
2. My wheels did compete with UK made products but not unfairly,except my manufacturer is much more efficient.
3. My wheels exceeded the standard of UK wheels
4. My wheels were well received by the EU countries.
The EU send you a form,unbelievably complicated,you have to use EU lawyers to argue your case....in the end its cheaper and easier to pay the tariff. I have been to shows were Chinese manufacturers have successfully argued that their product should be exempt but its a big task,takes years.
The end result was that the consumer paid 20% more.
As with Brexit,the EU are good at protecting their interest.
Sorry to be negative but I am certain they will put an anti-dumping duty on e-bikes into the EU...one of my friends is the biggest seller of e-bikes in Holland,all made in China,he outsells all the local EU manufacturers,he hurts the local Dutch market by a big margin.
Maybe Brexit could save us in the UK or will Theresa May just continue with the import tariffs,including anti-dumping,and pocket the money into our government coffers,very tempting....they are short of money.
If they put the same anti dumping duty on e-bikes,that could increase the purchase cost by 50%,which will also increase the normal 6% tariff and the vat payable (albeit reclaimable) on import,that will be the end of the cheap but good chinese bike,certainly the £1000.00 threshold will no longer be possible.
KudosDave

 

[Kudoscycles]

http://www.bike-eu.com/laws-regulations/artikel/2013/10/new-gsp-import-duty-free-bikes-from-philippines-1018238
Maybe not just China, new competition on the block.

When the EU hit the Chinese with anti-dumping duty on vanilla bikes the Asians look for ways round it....what they did was to route containers via Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia...they lifted the container off the ship,opened the doors,took out the Chinese shipping docs and replaced with Malay docs,put it back on the boat....it thus became a Malay shipment,no duty.
The EU got wise to this very quickly and included Malaysia,then Indonesia,then the Philippines and now Tunisia in the anti-dumping duty.
This is why we dont stand a hope in hell of having tariff free trade deal with the EU after Brexit,if they spent all that effort 'red ringing' countries thousands of miles away they are hardly likely to agree to a free trade deal 23 miles across the English Channel.
If they negotiate a deal,they will be sure to make certain that any deal will continue with anti-dumping duties both now and in the future...such a trade deal will be very complex and no doubt heavily in the EU favour...for example they may allow free trade on cars so as not to disrupt the flow of German cars.
KudosDave

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Stella are also huge in Holland, they will certainly be involved in trying to curb the accesses of EU protectionism.

If we think this through, say we do actually Brexit, which seems to be getting more unlikely by the day. If we in the UK are able to import ebikes, or anything else, at a lower tariff than the rest of Europe there could not possibly be a free trade agreement.

I would hope that Woosh are on the money here. If not we will have to move manufacturing to Romania or similar where wages are now the same or lower than in China. Ship all the parts from Asia like the rest of the European manufacturers and make the bikes there or at a push here, if we can find any labour to actually build the bikes here, tricky of we cannot employ from Europe! We are already talking to our Chinese partners about contingencies just in case.

 

[Woosh]

Ship all the parts from Asia like the rest of the European manufacturers and make the bikes there or at a push here, if we can find any labour to actually build the bikes here, tricky of we cannot employ from Europe! We are already talking to our Chinese partners about contingencies just in case.

You may do well on duty if you go with this.
Duty on motor, LCD, cableset and controller: 0%, on Lithium ion battery (8507600060): 2.7%
You pay more on frames and wheel assemblies but overall, you would pay less duty importing parts for assembling in the EU.

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Good point, I wonder if we could get away with importing the electric bikes at 6% and separating the batteries on the commercial invoice to pay 2.7%? Has anyone tried this?

It does bring the consequences of double taxation into sharp relief though. I wonder how many people realise they are paying VAT on Duty, tax on tax! With VAT at 20% and Duty at 6% that means people buying an ebike are paying an additional 27.2% in tax on the retail price? That equates to £384.69 on a 705Torque with 575Wh battery, if only we made the same as the Government does on our bikes!

 

[MikelBikel]

Amps, agreed, I've always thought that the practice of charging DUTY on VAT is wrong, unfair, and probably technically illegal. Its certainly a nonsense, like a lot of 'law'.
But unless challenged with bottomless pockets to b.... , oops I mean 'lobby' politicians it will continue.
Does the 'anti-dumping' go on top of these, i.e. Tax on Tax on Tax?

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Not sure Mike, I assumed it would replace duty.

 

[Kudoscycles]

HMRC are really bad at valuing product....all the chinese sellers on e-bay that use fulfillment warehouses in the UK,value the product at 10% of its true value,so they pay almost nil duty. When they sell on e-bay,they dont charge vat,the paypal monies go back to Hong Kong,so they defraud the import duty,dont collect any vat,dont pay income tax and dont pay corporation tax,they draw the cash out of any ATM in the world....HMRC know this but seem powerless to stop them.
The british consumer loves them,they get cheap illegal product direct to their home,no vatable invoice but most done care.
If we stop importing chinese bikes the legal way,I can see the chinese moving onto e-bay and Amazon,surprised they havent already....maybe too big a product to store in a fulfillment warehouse!!!!
KudosDave

 

[MikelBikel]

Never assume with the EU, they'll take an Assumption Tax on top
I always thought the 'fair' rate of tax, with One tax take only, was 10% traditionally.

 

[Kudoscycles]

Amps, agreed, I've always thought that the practice of charging DUTY on VAT is wrong, unfair, and probably technically illegal. Its certainly a nonsense, like a lot of 'law'.
But unless challenged with bottomless pockets to b.... , oops I mean 'lobby' politicians it will continue.
Does the 'anti-dumping' go on top of these, i.e. Tax on Tax on Tax?

I think the standard tariff goes first (6% bikes),then the anti-dumping duty(48% bikes),then the vat (20%)....the vat is reclaimable but can take 5 months for HMRC to give it back. The joys of e-bike importing.hehe.!!!!
Which is why you do need deep pockets to import high value items from Asia,the chinese suppliers normally want 30% in advance,take 3-6 months to assemble,then 70% against a bill of lading,shipping takes 5 weeks. It is a very cash flow negative business,it can take a few years to dial any profits back into the cash flow cycle,which is why underfunded newbies often fail....as Branson said 'how do you become a millionaire,become a billionaire then buy an airline'.
KudosDave