British based e-bike companies expressed concerns about the impact of a potential “flood” of cheap Chinese e-bikes entering the UK.
James Metcalfe and his brother Lyle run e-bike company Volt and have a factory in Milton Keynes.
They previously manufactured their bikes in China, before moving operations to a factory in Poland, and then shifting manufacturing to the UK following Brexit.
“I think this is an odd decision, and a kick in the teeth for UK manufacturing,” Metcalfe told the BBC.
“We brought our manufacturing here with assurances that this [tariffs on Chinese bikes] was a long term change. We’ve invested a lot in it. We’re a small business, family-owned, and trying to do the right thing by building a quality product,” he said.
The UK was already a very competitively priced market for bikes, with little need to bring in cheaper bikes from China, he added.
“What’s the benefit? I don’t see any. The government are saying there’ll be savings for the UK consumer, but for years we’ve been pushing government to put through alternative savings like grants and subsidies for customers.”
“Why not do what everyone else has done across Europe? Provide grants and invest in bike infrastructure in the UK,” he added.
Metcalfe also questioned why tariffs for folding e-bikes from China remained in place.
“I’m all for protecting the whole industry and I find it odd that they’re protecting one small part of it,” he said.
On Thursday, the government said it had accepted a recommendation from the Trade Remedies Authority to revoke anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese e-bikes of between 10.3% and 70.1%, and taxes designed to counteract subsidies of 3.9% to 17.2%.
A government spokesperson said: “Defending UK industry from unfair competition is important, which is why we’ve taken the decision to continue protecting UK folding e-bike producers based in the UK, whilst also lowering prices for consumers and importers of other products.”
The spokesperson added that the government was “continuing to take action on unsafe e-bikes” and had recently launched a campaign “to raise awareness of the risks of dangerous e-bike batteries and scooters”.
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