Between 19 December 2016 and 17 October 2019, the Commission received from the parties listed in Tables 1 and 3 requests for exemption with the information required to determine whether these requests were admissible in accordance with Article 4(1) of Regulation (EC) No 88/97.

The parties requesting exemption were given an opportunity to comment on the Commission’s conclusions concerning the admissibility of their requests.

In accordance with Article 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No 88/97, pending a decision on the merits of requests from the parties requesting exemption, the payment of the extended duty in respect of any imports of essential bicycle parts declared for free circulation by these parties listed in Tables 1 and 3 below was suspended as from the day on which the Commission received their respective requests.

The Commission established during its examination that the value of the parts originating in China constituted less than 60 % of the total value of the parts of all the bicycles assembled by both parties. This was also the case for the majority of the assembled bicycles by both parties.

Consequently, the Commission concluded that the respective assembly operations of Merida Polska Sp. Z o.o. and of Juan Luna Cabrera fall outside the scope of Article 13(2) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036.

For that reason, and in accordance with Article 7(1) of Regulation (EC) No 88/97, the parties listed in Table 1 fulfil the conditions for exemption from the extended duty.

In accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 88/97, the exemptions should take effect as from the date of receipt of the requests. The customs debts in respect of the extended duty from the parties requesting exemption should therefore be considered void from the same date.

The parties were informed of the Commission’s conclusions on the merits of their requests and were given an opportunity to comment thereon.

In case of change in reference, the exempted parties should provide all relevant information, in particular on any modification in its activities linked to assembly operations. Where appropriate, the Commission will update the references accordingly.

The exempted or suspended parties listed in Table 2 notified the Commission, between 2 May 2019 and 20 February 2020, of changes in their references (names, legal forms and addresses). The Commission, after having examined the information submitted, concluded that those changes do not affect the assembly operations with regard to the conditions of exemption or suspension set forth in Regulation (EC) No 88/97.

The examination of the merits of the requests from the parties listed in Table 3 is ongoing. Pending a decision on the merits of their requests, the payment of the extended duty by these parties is suspended.

On 3 July 2019 the Commission received from that party a request to withdraw the application for an exemption while the examination of its merits was ongoing and the payment of the extended duty was suspended.

The Commission accepted the withdrawal and consequently the suspension of the payment of the extended duty should be lifted. The extended duty should be collected as from the date of receipt of the request for exemption submitted by that party, namely the date on which the suspension took effect, that is 25 October 2018.

The party was informed of the Commission’s conclusions and was given an opportunity to comment thereon. No comments were submitted.

The exempted parties listed in Table 5 notified the Commission, between 30 June 2019 and 3 February 2020, of the following: closing down of its activities (Bicicletas Monty S.A.), and the renunciation of the exemption from the payment of extended duty (Gor Kolesa, proizvodnja koles, d.o.o).