Petition for Safeguard Duties on Bicycles Withdrawn

Two U.S. manufacturers on Oct. 26 withdrew their request for Section 201 safeguard duties on bicycles, just one week after the petition was filed (see 1810230048). The document from Bicycle Corporation of America and Detroit Bikes notifying the International Trade Commission of the withdrawal provided no reason for the move, but Kelsey Rule, the attorney representing the companies, said it was “the result of a confidential settlement agreement between private parties.” The ITC had on the previous day sent a letter identifying deficiencies in the petition and requiring that they be corrected by Oct. 31 for the petition to receive consideration. Those omissions included concrete data on injury, including idling of production facilities, declining profitability or unemployment, as well as import data for the past five years. The petition had said import data on the bicycles included under the petition -- those valued under $400 -- was unreliable because many imports are entered under Section 321 and don’t show up in statistics. It also said the injury to U.S. industry had occurred in the mid-1990s when U.S. manufacturers were pushed out by low-priced imports.