Surcharges, rapid market pivots, and the emotional toll of ever-changing duty rates.
Escape Staff, Unsplash, Bivo, Esker, Joshua Strong
Four months after Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariff shock, and just days after a last-minute deal extended lower Chinese tariff rates, the US bike industry remains cautious.
The extension, agreed on August 12, delays a jump from 30% tariffs back to triple-digit duties on Chinese bikes and components, but for most companies, the reprieve is only partial: rates on imports from China and other countries remain historically high, unpredictable, and exhausting to navigate.
“It’s been challenging,” Tom Morgan, president of US-based bike brand Ibis Cycles, admits when asked how the last few months have been. Ibis imports most of its bikes from Vietnam, which is targeted with some of the highest US tariff rates of any country. Morgan is not alone in his assessment. Across the cycling industry, “challenging” has become the understatement of the spring and summer months.
The April tariff escalation turned an already-uncertain landscape into a thicket of reciprocal rates, transshipment penalties, and a shift in where brands focus their resources. This is how companies have navigated what US industry and advocacy group PeopleForBikes calls “the most complex and burdensome trade environment the bike industry has faced in decades.”
Where we are now
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