Canada Initiates Anti-dumping Case on Vietnam Bikes

3:26:31 PM | 7/8/2005

Canada Initiates Anti-dumping Case on Vietnam Bikes

Canada has recently launched an anti-dumping investigation into bicycle imports from Vietnam and five other countries and territories into Canada, said the Ministry of Trade.

Fourteen Vietnamese bicycle makers, most of them foreign-invested, along with other bicycle makers from China, Taiwan, the US, Thailand and the Philippines, will be the focus of the investigation, which was raised after dumping accusations by the Canadian Bicycle Manufacturers Association.

As recently ruled by the Canadian International Trade Court, on February 24, Canada will send inquiries to concerned parties who will have to send back their replies 20 days later.

The probe aims to prove whether certain categories of bicycles imported from these countries to Canada have seriously damaged or threatened to damage the Canadian bicycle industry.

The Canadian court is expected to give the final decision in August. And Canada will then consider any appropriate protective measures based on the conclusion.

In June 2004, the European Commission initiated a similar anti-dumping investigation on bicycle exports from Vietnam into the European Union but then decided to postpone the lawsuit until July this year.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Trade has since denied all claims that the country is selling bicycles to these markets at dumping prices.

"Vietnamese enterprises don't sell bicycles at dumping prices and Vietnamese government always respects business rights of all economic sectors," said Dinh My Loan, Head of Vietnam Competition Management Department.

According to statistics provided by the European Commission, Vietnam's exported bicycle volume and its market share in the EU market have rapidly increased in recent years, from 267,000 units and 1.6 per cent in 1999 to 307,000 and 1.8 per cent in 2000, 586,000 and 3.7 per cent in 2001, 767,000 and 5 per cent in 2002, and 1.31 million and 8.2 per cent in 2003. Shipments in 2004 are estimated at 1.5 million units.