Vietnamese and Chinese bike frames - increased EU tariffs

Today's Financial Times (the cyclist's daily newspaper of choice)
reported that the EU plans to combat dumping by increasing tariffs on
Vietnamese and Chinese bike frames imported to the EU.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/99a04f06-d9...00e2511c8.html

"The European Commission's draft bicycle recommendation, tabled on
Thursday, is for tariffs on Chinese imports to be raised to 48.5 per
cent, and for a tariff, of 34.5 per cent, to be introduced on Vietnamese
products for the first time."

If I understand this correctly it will raise the price of all imported
frames, and not just the ones at give-away prices.

--
Joe * If I cannot be free I'll be cheap

JLB wrote:

Today's Financial Times (the cyclist's daily newspaper of choice)
reported that the EU plans to combat dumping by increasing tariffs on
Vietnamese and Chinese bike frames imported to the EU.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/99a04f06-d9...00e2511c8.html

"The European Commission's draft bicycle recommendation, tabled on
Thursday, is for tariffs on Chinese imports to be raised to 48.5 per
cent, and for a tariff, of 34.5 per cent, to be introduced on Vietnamese
products for the first time."

If I understand this correctly it will raise the price of all imported
frames, and not just the ones at give-away prices.

Does anyone in the far east actually *subsidise* bicycle frames?
Or is this just a case of them being competitive and our powers-that-be
protectionist?

--
Nick Kew

On 06/11/2005 10:05:26 Nick Kew wrote:

JLB wrote:

Today's Financial Times (the cyclist's daily newspaper of choice)
reported that the EU plans to combat dumping by increasing tariffs on
Vietnamese and Chinese bike frames imported to the EU.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/99a04f06-d9...00e2511c8.html

"The European Commission's draft bicycle recommendation, tabled on
Thursday, is for tariffs on Chinese imports to be raised to 48.5 per
cent, and for a tariff, of 34.5 per cent, to be introduced on Vietnamese
products for the first time."

If I understand this correctly it will raise the price of all imported
frames, and not just the ones at give-away prices.

Does anyone in the far east actually *subsidise* bicycle frames? Or is
this just a case of them being competitive and our powers-that-be
protectionist?

No, it is just that they have a large accessible workforce that will
work for subsistance rates and the cost of living (read poverty living)
is very low.

--

Buck

I would rather be out on my Catrike

http://www.catrike.co.uk

Nick Kew wrote:
JLB wrote:

Today's Financial Times (the cyclist's daily newspaper of choice)
reported that the EU plans to combat dumping by increasing tariffs on
Vietnamese and Chinese bike frames imported to the EU.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/99a04f06-d9...00e2511c8.html

"The European Commission's draft bicycle recommendation, tabled on
Thursday, is for tariffs on Chinese imports to be raised to 48.5 per
cent, and for a tariff, of 34.5 per cent, to be introduced on Vietnamese
products for the first time."

If I understand this correctly it will raise the price of all imported
frames, and not just the ones at give-away prices.


Does anyone in the far east actually *subsidise* bicycle frames?
Or is this just a case of them being competitive and our powers-that-be
protectionist?


And who are they protecting - the Taiwanese? AFAIK very few frames are
made in the UK or Europe these days anyway so they can only be
protecting other Asian suppliers of frames. Mad.

--
Tony

"Don't argue the matter, the difficulties will argue for themselves"
-W.S. Churchill

Tony Raven wrote:
Nick Kew wrote:

JLB wrote:

Today's Financial Times (the cyclist's daily newspaper of choice)
reported that the EU plans to combat dumping by increasing tariffs on
Vietnamese and Chinese bike frames imported to the EU.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/99a04f06-d9...00e2511c8.html

"The European Commission's draft bicycle recommendation, tabled on
Thursday, is for tariffs on Chinese imports to be raised to 48.5 per
cent, and for a tariff, of 34.5 per cent, to be introduced on Vietnamese
products for the first time."

If I understand this correctly it will raise the price of all imported
frames, and not just the ones at give-away prices.


Does anyone in the far east actually *subsidise* bicycle frames?
Or is this just a case of them being competitive and our powers-that-be
protectionist?


And who are they protecting - the Taiwanese? AFAIK very few frames are
made in the UK or Europe these days anyway so they can only be
protecting other Asian suppliers of frames. Mad.

The article itself answers your question, up to a point. However, its
figure of 50,000 EU jobs that need protecting is a suspiciously round
figure and is hard to swallow without more details.

--
Joe * If I cannot be free I'll be cheap

in message , Tony Raven
') wrote:

Nick Kew wrote:
JLB wrote:

Today's Financial Times (the cyclist's daily newspaper of choice)
reported that the EU plans to combat dumping by increasing tariffs on
Vietnamese and Chinese bike frames imported to the EU.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/99a04f06-d9...00e2511c8.html

"The European Commission's draft bicycle recommendation, tabled on
Thursday, is for tariffs on Chinese imports to be raised to 48.5 per
cent, and for a tariff, of 34.5 per cent, to be introduced on
Vietnamese products for the first time."

If I understand this correctly it will raise the price of all
imported frames, and not just the ones at give-away prices.

Does anyone in the far east actually *subsidise* bicycle frames?
Or is this just a case of them being competitive and our
powers-that-be protectionist?

And who are they protecting - the Taiwanese? AFAIK very few frames
are made in the UK or Europe these days anyway so they can only be
protecting other Asian suppliers of frames...

The Czech republic is still mass producing reasonably good frames.
Probably other former eastern block countries are too. I think Orange
are still making reasonable numbers of frames in Yorkshire (BICBW).
However, most surviving western European frame makers are either
artisans or else very up-market specialists and either way aren't
likely to be competing in the same market as the el-cheapo far east
imports. Most of the quality far eastern frames which can compete with
European makers are in Taiwan, although I believe you can get
exceedingly good titanium frames custom made in mainland China.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

[ This .sig intentionally left blank ]

JLB wrote:
Tony Raven wrote:

And who are they protecting - the Taiwanese? AFAIK very few frames
are made in the UK or Europe these days anyway so they can only be
protecting other Asian suppliers of frames. Mad.

The article itself answers your question, up to a point. However, its
figure of 50,000 EU jobs that need protecting is a suspiciously round
figure and is hard to swallow without more details.


It does and it doesn't. What are those jobs? I know of very few bikes
that are made in Europe with European parts although lots are assembled
here. Even the high end bikes mainly use frames made in Asia and
assembled over here. There are a few UK frame builders but they are
selling to customers looking for a specific high end product who would
not touch a typical Chinese or Vietnamese bike.

I suspect the result will be just a general increase in bike prices,
mainly at the sterlinghouse end of the market but to a lesser extent at
the top end. Which will lead to less people buying bikes and less
people in the bike industry.

--
Tony

"Don't argue the matter, the difficulties will argue for themselves"
-W.S. Churchill

Tony Raven wrote:
JLB wrote:

Tony Raven wrote:


And who are they protecting - the Taiwanese? AFAIK very few frames
are made in the UK or Europe these days anyway so they can only be
protecting other Asian suppliers of frames. Mad.

The article itself answers your question, up to a point. However, its
figure of 50,000 EU jobs that need protecting is a suspiciously round
figure and is hard to swallow without more details.


It does and it doesn't. What are those jobs? I know of very few bikes
that are made in Europe with European parts although lots are assembled
here. Even the high end bikes mainly use frames made in Asia and
assembled over here. There are a few UK frame builders but they are
selling to customers looking for a specific high end product who would
not touch a typical Chinese or Vietnamese bike.

I suspect the result will be just a general increase in bike prices,
mainly at the sterlinghouse end of the market but to a lesser extent at
the top end. Which will lead to less people buying bikes and less
people in the bike industry.

That's my guess too. Perhaps there is some properly researched EU report
that explains and justifies the bike tariffs policy, but I'm not aware
of it. Neither is there anything to suggest this has been looked at in
the light of other government priorities. Pushing up bike prices at the
same time as trying to persuade people to consider alternatives to cars
looks like a typical "right hand wholly independent and unaware of left
hand".

The article gives some space to European (and Asian) opponents of the
policy. It's also interesting that it traces this back to Raleigh
closing its UK manufacturing. Do they imagine Raleigh will start again?
Looks like another "Operation Close Stable Door".

--
Joe * If I cannot be free I'll be cheap

On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 10:05:26 +0100, Nick Kew
wrote:


Does anyone in the far east actually *subsidise* bicycle frames?
Or is this just a case of them being competitive and our powers-that-be
protectionist?

Has our PM been cuddling up too close to George? The Americans have a
deep-seated fear of Vietnamese on bicycles for historical reasons.

Perhaps the dear leader has caught the same phobia.

(Can't really explain why the Chinese get hit too though.)