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EC urged to lift anti-dumping duty on Vietnamese bikes
Vietnam has asked the European Commission (EC) to end its levy of anti-dumping duty on made-in-Vietnam bikes immediately after the duty expires and not to make a final review of it.
The request comes in the wake that the EC’s anti-dumping duty on bikes imported from Vietnam will expire on July 15 and that the agency will decide on whether it will review the duty for extension or not.
According to the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry, the country’s representative offices in the European Union, especially in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Italy, which have involved directly in the case, met with representatives from the EC Directorate General for Trade and the European Bicycle Manufacturers’ Association (EBMA) and relevant agencies to lobby on the issue.
The Vietnamese representatives emphasised that the EC’s imposition of anti-dumping duty on imported Vietnamese bike was a wrong and unjust decision and that the imposition does not conform to the World Trade Organisation (WTO)’s regulations and the growing economic-trade ties between Vietnam and the EU.
They said the EC decision has made a negative impact on Vietnam’s bike industry and its workers.
Since the EU levied the anti-dumping duty, Vietnam has suffered a drop of 50 fold in its bike export to the EU market, from 1,067,772 units in 2005, or 11.09 percent of the market share, to 21,421 units in 2009.
Accordingly, the Vietnamese bike industry has been bogged down in serious difficulties with many manufacturers going bankrupt or changing to other forms of production. Particularly, the number of workers in the industry was axed from 210,000 in 2005 to only 5,000 early this year.
After hearing technical reports presented by the Vietnamese representatives in the EU, the EU counterparts acknowledged the case and pledged to consider the issue regarding both sides’ interest and the entire EU-Vietnam economic-trade ties.
VOV, VNA
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