December 11/97 14:58 pm - Victoria News and Gossip, Anti-Dumping Ruling

Posted by Editor on 12/11/97
 

Victoria News  This report is coming to from beautiful (and relatively warm) Victoria, B.C. We are out here to attend the Canadian Cycling Association Awards dinner (tonight, sold out, too bad if you put off getting your tickets). We will also be meeting with members of the National team, who are attending a pre-season training camp), and presenting our own Reader's Choice Awards on Saturday night at Legends, in the Strathcona Hotel (downtown Victoria, 919 Douglas Street). The event will get underway at 8:30 pm (local time), with the winners (Male and Female) announced at 9:00. Pretty much the entire National team is expected to be in attendance (it IS a pre-season camp, after all...), so this is your chance to rub shoulders with riders such as Clara Hughes, Alison Sydor, Andreas Hestler, etc. We hope to see you there.  Some tidbits of information we have picked up: Sue Palmer has made the transition from road racer to pro mountain biker after signing a contract to race for Haro. She has left the powerful Saturn squad, and her friend and compatriot Clara Hughes, for the dirt...Alison Sydor is sporting the remnants of a black eye - the result of a hockey stick butt end (hockey is Alison's other passion)...Steve Bauer is in town for the Awards dinner, looking extremely fit. He says that his touring company (based in Southern Ontario) had a very good first year, and let us know about a planned tour to Europe in the Spring. It will take place during the Ghent-Wevelgem, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix Classics, and I can't think of a better potential guide than the man who has raced them all extensively (and photo-finished second at Roubaix). We will have more info on this later.   Ant-Dumping Extended  The CITT (Canadian International Trade Tribunal)has released its ruling on anti-dumping tariffs, and the news is good for Canadian bike manufacturers. The Tribunal has extended the tariffs that were put in place against countries such as Taiwan and China, ruling that to remove them would lead to a resumption of the dumping activities that led to their imposition 5 years ago. As before, the tariffs are levied on bikes having an FOB Taiwan value below $325 Canadian. What this means is that bike prices below retail price points of approximately $650-$700 are not likely to take a sudden drop. The ruling does not affect bikes above this price, since the CITT felt that Canadian companies were not hurt in this more brand sensitive range. The primary focus of the anti-dumping duty is low-end, no-name, mass merchant bikes that are sourced from wherever they are cheapest (without regard to quality). This market is one that is the bread and butter of Canadian manufacturers, and is the one that had all but disappeared before the dumping duties were imposed. Canada is not the only country to impose such duties - the European Union has also put them in place.