Bicycle makers sweat over dumping tariffs

Europe’s anti-dumping duty had “severe and negative” impacts on Vietnamese bike producers and should be allowed to expire at the end of its term on July 15, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said yesterday.

The EC imposed an anti-dumping tax of 34 per cent on Viet Nam’s bicycles in July 2005 to expire on July 15 this year, but the European Bicycle Manufacturers Association has applied for a review of the tax.

If the EC rejects the association’s application, the anti-dumping duties will expire. If it reviews the tax, the tariffs will continue for another 12 months until the review results are announced.

“Over the past five years, Viet Nam’s bicycle exports to the EU market have declined severely due to the tax, from more than 1 million units in 2005 to 21,400 last year,” ministry’s competition administration deputy director Vu Ba Phu told a press conference yesterday.

The conference was called as the EC considered whether to review the tax.

“In 2007-08, our bike exports in that market only accounted for 0.61 per cent and 0.40 per cent of the total bike imports of the EU. This was not a significant market share under the provisions of WTO and EU rules on anti-dumping,” Phu said.

Department official Le Sy Giang said export values of Vietnamese bikes to the EU in 2007 plunged by 95.3 per cent from the previous year.

“After five years of the tax imposition, the local bicycle industry is almost exhausted. Many businesses went bankrupt or had to switch production. Meanwhile, the market share of Viet Nam bike exports to the EU is very small, can not influence the bicycle industry in Europe,” Giang said.

“The EC’s decision greatly affected the employees in the bicycle industry. Before 2005, the total number of employees in the local industry was 210,000 people, and now it is merely 5,000.”

Phu said the continuation of anti-dumping measures against Vietnamese bike exports would be inconsistent with the good relations in trade and economy between Viet Nam and the European Community.

He said Viet Nam was working hard to create a favourable business environment for investors, including European ones.

The ministry had earlier sent a diplomatic note to the Trade European Commission analysing the situation and explaining the impact of the tax on the bike industry in Viet Nam. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam bicycle