British bike companies are worried that they will be unable to compete with state-subsidised Chinese rivals if Brexit ends import tariffs on bikes from China. Increased competition in the UK market may be compounded by reduced access to the EU export markets.
Bikes from China are currently subject to EU ‘anti-dumping’ import tariffs of up to 48.5% because it is said that large state subsidies give Chinese manufacturer’s an unfair advantage.
The UK Government is currently examining each of the EU’s anti-dumping rules, and where British producers account for no more than 1% of the domestic market, the import tariff will be dropped.