Canada: 30% tax on bicycle imports

At the request of Canadian bike builders Procycle and Raleigh Canada, Canadian cabinet ministers are considering a 30% tax on top of the 13% customs tariff and special antidumping duties of five to fifty percent on bicycle imports.

Procycle and Raleigh Canada, which imports bike parts and assembles them in Canada for the low-end mass retail market, asked for the surtax to protect Canadian jobs. Retailers in Canada, on the other hand, are crying foul. "Gasoline prices are up, inner city smog and traffic congestion are up, greenhouses gases are up, childhood obesity is up and virtually everyone has identified bicycles as part of the solution. So where is the public interest in a 30% import bicycle surtax?" asks Peter Lilly of CyclePath in Toronto, Ontario.

For more analysis, see also this article at Canada.com.