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@DFP
I was reading about taxation of imported bits and bobs when I stumbled across this.
Apparently the EU has enforced heavy taxation on bicycles imported from China as bikes from there were deemed to be much too below our local market prices. A whopping 48.5% !!!!!
Up until recently the exporters managed to sidestep this by routing their shipments through indonesia, tunisia, malaysia and other such countries. But the EU people have now put a stop to that.
I just thought this was massively surprising and a bit shocking, it is OK for commodity traders and bankers to enjoy a free for all but the notion of a free market is not compatible with the humble bicycle.
Some chinese stuff already seems so cheap (particularly BSO's) it would be interesting to see how much cheaper they could be without this outrageous tax. Perhaps it could allow better quality bikes to be sold at more reasonable prices. Decent Entry/Enthusiast level brand name OTP's have gotten crazy expensive over the past couple years. I think it would be better to have laws banning "disposable" BSO's and encouraging quality bikes that can be upgraded and repaired.
Did you know that Laptops, Games Consoles and Camera's are duty free? What is this madness.