“My industry cannot survive”: Tern Bicycles facing $1 million Trump tariff charges for e-bike shipments, as its US manager urges bike industry to “blow up” Republicans “with letters”

Tern Bicycles could be staring down the barrel of a $1 million customs bill, with a hard deadline of Wednesday, April 9 looming over several of its shipments currently en route to the United States from Vietnam following the so-called reciprocal tariff charges announced by US President Donald Trump.

With insiders and experts still coming to terms with the tariff hikes amidst fears of heightened uncertainty for an already struggling bike industry, Tern, the Taiwan-based company known for its e-bikes, cargo bikes and folding bikes, has come forward as the first one to highlight the “crippling effects” of Trump’s latest controversial economic policy decision.

Until this week, the US import regime for bikes built in Vietnam had been relatively stable, offering manufacturers a way around the tariffs still applied to Chinese-made bikes under the previous administration.

But with Trump’s retaliatory trade measures, announced on Wednesday that will see an additional 10 per cent tariff imposed on goods from all countries entering the United States, on top of any pre-existing duties or tariffs, along with targeted higher base tariff rates on all goods from select nations, the cost of bringing bikes into the US has skyrocketed overnight, prompting urgent logistical reshuffles and last-ditch appeals to lawmakers.

Tern, which assembles its premium electric cargo bikes in Vietnam for the American market, said that the new unexpected import duties — raised from zero to 46 per cent for e-bikes, and an even steeper 57 per cent for standard bicycles — could represent a potentially existential threat for the brand.

> Trump’s tariffs might just tip the bike industry over the edge

Steve Boyd, Tern’s general manager for North America, said: “Our customs broker normally gives us terms (on duties), but that’s for $20,000 or $30,000. Not $1 million.”

The scale of the cost increase, he explained, is simply beyond anything Tern, which describes itself as a medium-sized brand, can absord. For larger companies that also import products from Asia, the tariffs are set to be proportionally larger.

Tern NBD-23 (credit: Dave Atkinson)

Bicycle Retailer and Industry News reports that the Taiwanese brand is currently doing everything it can to ensure that at least some of its shipments avoid the punishing new charges.

As of Friday, a container that recently arrived at a California port was tucked directly into a local warehouse in a desperate bid to clear customs before the 12:01 am deadline on Wednesday, 9 April. The container had originally been set to travel by rail to another location — a journey that now poses too great a risk of delay.

And that’s only part of the problem. Several more containers are already in transit, and with the rules specifying that only goods already loaded onto their “final mode of transit” before the deadline will qualify for exemption, there’s still significant uncertainty about how many of Tern’s bikes will escape the tariff.

“With Vietnam being a day ahead of us, I told the factory not to ship us anything after the 8th to be safe,” said Boyd, who added that they were also exploring the option of diverting future shipments to Canada or Mexico as a temporary workaround.

“I’d be shocked if this could last very long. It’s already crippling the global economy. Even [Trump’s] yes men are going to turn on him at some point.”

But for shipments that do get caught by the deadline, the implications are stark. Boyd said: “For Tern, the new tariff is simply a non-starter. I don’t want anything with 46 per cent duty. I have some inventory here, and I have one container we know is safe, several more (in transit) that might be safe. After that I don't know, I'm hoping something changes.”

Adjusting retail and wholesale pricing to accommodate such a huge cost increase, he added, is completely out of the question. “The notion that everyone in the supply chain will sharpen their pencils is not realistic. If we had got just a 10 per cent hit you’d go back and see what we could make work. But 46 per cent, I just said, ‘don’t ship us anything else until we figure it out.’”

> Trump tariffs see UK bike brand offer customers 5% discount to “meet them halfway”, as cycling industry gripped by more uncertainty

While Tern is already evaluating long-term solutions, such as potentially expanding production in Portugal, where bikes for the European market are already assembled, shifting manufacturing of such complex and highly specialised machines is not a quick or simple process. In the short term, Boyd said, the only real hope lies in the possibility of a political reversal.

Tern is holding out some hope, after reports suggested that Trump had held talks with Vietnamese President To Lam on Friday, raising the prospect of a negotiated resolution. But until that happens, the impact of the tariffs is being felt in real time not just Tern but the entire cycling industry.

“I’d be shocked if this could last very long. It’s already crippling the global economy,” Boyd said. “Even [Trump’s] yes men are going to turn on him at some point.”

Boyd urged others in the industry to step up and speak out, especially those whose businesses fall within Republican-held states, where political pressure could be more influential.

He said: “I live in California. All my representatives are Democrats, and Trump isn’t going to listen to them. But around the country, many people in the industry have GOP representatives and senators.

“Blow them up (with letters). Tell them, ‘my industry cannot survive.’ And not just owners, have 10 of the staffers do it too.”

> Review: Tern NBD

2022 Tern ShortHaul D8 - riding 4.jpg (credit: road.cc)

To support those efforts, industry group PeopleForBikes has created a template letter and is helping members identify their local representatives.

Ryan Birkicht, the organisation’s communications director, said: “We encourage PeopleForBikes members to reach out to us and we can help them identify their members of Congress and provide their contact information and template language to expedite the process.”

On Friday, UK-based high-end steel mountain bike brand Starling Cycles announced that it would be offering customers across the world a five per cent discount on all products, in hopes that the discount would enable them to “keep Starlings flowing into the US, without charging silly money”.

“In a classic case of politics making life harder for the little guy, the UK just got slapped with a 10 per cent tariff on exports to the USA,” Starling Cycles founder Joe McEwan said in a statement on the brand’s website.

“So, we’re pushing back. We’re not about politics, but neither are we stoked about a geriatric millionaire telling us who we can or can’t sell to.

“We’re about getting our bikes into the hands of people who’ll love them, whatever country they’re in. We love our USA customers, and we’ll be damned if we leave them out in the cold.”

Meanwhile, earlier this week, Arnold Kamler, the CEO of American manufacturer Kent International, told Bicycle Retailer and Industry News: “The biggest problem for us and everyone is the cash flow.

“When we buy bicycles and bike parts, we get credit terms of 60-90-120 days, but with high tariffs, they get deducted from our checking account automatically. We have an auto debit with US customs, and I assume most of the big bike companies do. It’s brutal.”