Brands built on marketing ‘will just evaporate’: Industry experts weigh in on what US tariffs mean for the bike industry, and, the cost of your next machine

It is no secret that the world’s bicycle industry runs on skills and products developed in the factories of China and Taiwan, two countries faced with heavy new US trade tariffs as of 5 April.

All countries faced a 10% baseline tariff, an import tax payable on all goods shipped into the U.S., but China and Taiwan – already subject to heavy tariffs set by Trump’s administration during his first term – are set to pay 34% and 32% respectively in additional import taxes. That brings the total tariff for goods imported to the U.S. from China to 54%. China has already clapped back, with heavy new tariffs of their own, and the fluid situation is changing daily.

What is clear is that the repercussions are potentially seismic, with many brands reliant on exports from multiple countries now facing enormous fees. But what does that mean for the bike industry, and its customers?

Giant and Merida, for example, occupy opposite ends of Taiwan, with a plethora of facilities in between; elements of production also take place in Vietnam and elsewhere – a country also facing tariffs and not so heavily discussed in the media. Whilst mainstream brands – those names you see on the downtubes of the vast majority of bikes ridden across the world – are heavily invested in the design process and creation of frame moulds, hardly any own their own factories. Their frames come from the facilities of Giant, Merida, and other lesser known manufacturers.