US bike business stops Trump trade tariffs dead in their tracks

In what can only be described as a David and Goliath moment, a US cycling business – Terry Precision Cycling – has played a part in stopping Trump administration trade tariffs, with the US Court of International Trade ruling that the President “exceeded any authority” as it moved to block tariffs.

The original legal challenge, brought by Terry Precision Cycling, as “one of five businesses suing the administration”, was reported in April of this year by Bicycle Retailer and Industry News.

Overnight, the action, which originally saw a filing with the US Court of International Trade, appears to have come to a conclusion (for now, at least).

This morning, the BBC reported that a US federal court, comprising “three judges, (has) ruled that Trump overstepped his authority when he used an emergency law to impose tariffs”. Speaking about the ruling, the Oregon attorney general is quoted as saying the unanimous ruling is “incredibly significant.”

As would be expected, the Trump administration has stated that it will appeal the decision, with the President quoted as saying, “It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency.”

Tariffs. Challenges. Business implications.

As tariffs became the talking point of this second term in office for the 47th President of the United States of America, BikeBiz has sought to share a variety of viewpoints, from both UK and US perspectives.

On April 2nd, we heard from US-based Chris Nolte, co-founder of Bloom, who pointed out that the industry is already being forced to adapt. Nolte asked, “Trade tariffs rising, is this the push the US domestic e-bike industry needs?”.

Giving a European take on the impact of tariffs, Phillip Lucas shared thoughts on April 5th, under the heading of “Trade tariffs and thresholds: Navigating the opportunities—and pitfalls—of a more expensive bicycle future“.

Reflecting the rapid changes in a fluid situation, Lucas submitted 3 significant updates to that feature as it was being prepared for publishing. Ironically, this came to be viewed as ‘stable’ when, less than a month later, tariff ‘bingo’ got completely out of hand, with changes made, in some instances, on a daily basis.

This ultimately resulted in a meeting of the US and China in Geneva, Switzerland during the weekend of May 10th and 11th.

The outcome of that meeting again caused a raft of updates to the next feature, somewhat appropriately titled “Phillip Lucas on trade tariffs: The consequences of uncertainty“.

Readers of the BikeBiz print magazine will also have seen Mark Sutton pen a feature ‘War, what is it good for?‘ exploring tariffs, and the impact these deliver.

This feature also saw repeated rewriting as the situation continued to evolve, serving as a window into the challenges businesses face when daily and weekly changes make even short and medium term planning a reactionary ‘best guess’ – not conducive to long term business success for any sector, much less on with a long supply chain comprising a host of partners across a variety of countries.

Reflecting on this uncertainty, Madison CEO, Dom Langan, shared his experience visiting Sea Otter Classic, which took place in the two weeks following the initial announcement of the tariffs.