The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) has today published findings that recommend anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures on e-bikes from China be revoked, as keeping them in place would, “not be in the economic interest of the UK”.
Revoking the measures could benefit the UK economy by an average of £51m per year, save consumers an average of £260 per e-bike, and result in an average of 31,000 more e-bikes being bought per year in the UK, the public body said.
The TRA announced last year it was reviewing anti-dumping and countervailing measures on e-bikes imported from China.
A company is said to be ‘dumping’ when it exports a product at a price lower than the price it normally charges in its own home market. Anti-dumping measures - like the tariff imposed on bikes and e-bikes made in China - can be applied if the dumping is hurting the industry in the importing country.
"Although it is likely that dumping and subsidisation of Chinese e-bikes would likely recur if the measures were no longer applied and that the UK production industry would suffer some injury, it was found that this injury did not outweigh the benefits to the UK economy or consumers if the measures were revoked," the TRA said.
Sales of e-bikes in the UK reached an estimated £325 million in 2023, compared with £96 million in 2018, and are expected to grow further in the coming years.
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TRA chief executive Oliver Griffiths said: “We always assess the impact of a trade remedy measure on the UK economy. Our interim conclusion is that the benefits to UK bicycle producers from continuing the current measures on e-bikes would be significantly outweighed by harm to the rest of the economy.
“We project that removing the measures could save consumers around £260 per e-bike and could benefit the UK economy by around £51 million annually.”
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Under the UK’s revised trade remedies regime, the TRA offers the Secretary of State for Business and Trade alternative options to revoking the measures, if it finds that a measure is not in the economic interest of the UK.
These included only applying the measures to folding e-bikes, as UK producers are more heavily concentrated in this market. A period of consultation is now open for the options, and then the TRA says it will make its final recommendation to the Secretary of State.
The TRA conducted a consumer survey as part of its assessment of how measures on these imports would affect the overall UK economy. The survey targeted e-bike customers and the TRA said it helped it to “assess consumer sensitivity to e-bike prices”.
Businesses that may be affected by the reviews, such as importers or exporters of the products or UK producers of similar products, can comment on the initial findings via the TRA’s online case platform.
