EU Commission lowers anti-dumping duties for Giant Kunshan

The European Commission has agreed on the final judgement of the General Court of the European Union and imposed anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on e-bikes from China made by Giant Electric Vehicle (Kunshan) Co., Ltd. The Commission also decided to lower the duty from 24.6% to 13.8%.

In May 2022, the European General Court annulled the anti-dumping and countervailing duties implemented by the European Commission back in 2019 on e-bikes made in China by Giant Electric Vehicle Kunshan Co. Ltd. These duties were implemented by the European Commission back in 2019 “in order to prevent further injury being caused to the Union industry by the dumped imports of the product concerned.”

The e-bike anti-dumping anti-subsidy investigations investigated on China-made e-bikes created a lot of turmoil in the industry between 2017 and 2019. The European Commission finally decided in January 2019 to impose dumping duties varying from 73.4% for the Bodo Vehicle Group, to 24.6% for Giant Electric Vehicle and 33.4% for the majority of Chinese e-bike exporters. Giant Electric Vehicle (GEV) disagreed and took the case to the EU General Court. According to Giant Electric Vehicle, the methodology the EU Commission used for the price undercutting calculation, was incorrect.

Reopening of the review

However, the General Court initially did not fully agree on the price comparison made by the European Commission and wrote “the Commission did not make a fair comparison when calculating the applicant’s price undercutting margin.” The General Court noted that the methodological error found had the effect of identifying undercutting of the Union industry’s prices, the importance or existence of which had not been properly established. Subsequently the European Commission published the start of review of this case last July.

Data collected from manufacturers

During the review the European Commission collected sample data at e-bike manufacturers in the European Union and their related trading companies. In order to ensure a fair comparison between Giant’s prices and the prices of the manufacturers in Europe, the Commission recalculated the undercutting margin of Giant by adjusting the weighted average sales prices of the e-bike producers in Europe.

Price undercutting still remains

In the Official Journal, the European Commission states that, “following the correction of the methodological error identified by the General Court in May 2022, the levels by which Chinese imports have undercut the manufacturer in Europe have decreased to 17% on average. Although the levels decreased, there has still clearly been significant price dumping on imports from China.”

“Despite the reduction in the undercutting for some Chinese exporters, the fact that imports from the sampled Chinese exporters were undercutting the European industry sales prices to a significant extent still remains. Thus, the revised undercutting margins did not alter the original finding about the existence of the causal link between the damage for the European manufacturers from dumped imports from China,” the EU Commission writes. With that the Commission regards its initials findings as fully valid.

‘Although the levels decreased, there has still clearly been significant price dumping on imports from China’

says the European Commission

Response from the industry

The Europe industry organization EMBA confirmed to Bike Europe that it was content with the outcome of the review. The same question was asked to Giant Group, but they did not come back with a comment yet.

“The judgment is clear and simple,” says Annick Roetinck of trade association LEVA-EU. “The Commission has made a methodological error in the determination of price undercutting which cannot be overcome. This error invalidates the causal link between the alleged dumped imports and the injury to the EU industry. More importantly, the Court has stated that the methodological error has a bearing on the calculation of price undercutting established in respect of the other sampled exporting producers. In other words, the regulations are in theory not only invalid for Giant but for all parties involved. However, only Giant took the case to Court and, therefore, the Court can only rule for Giant.”

EC imposes lower duties for Giant

Taking into account the revised significant undercutting margins the Commission concluded that e-bike manufacturers in the EU suffered injury as meant in the anti-dumping regulation. Taking the comments raised by interested parties into account the EU Commission decided to implement anti-dumping duties to Giant of 13.8%.

A definitive anti-dumping duty is hereby imposed on imports of e-bikes currently falling under CN codes 8711 60 10 and ex 8711 60 90 (TARIC code 8711 60 90 10), originating in the People’s Republic of China, and manufactured by Giant Electric Vehicle (Kunshan) Co., Ltd as of 19 July 2018.