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The Politics of Global Sourcing: A Case Study of EU's Trade in Bicycles with China and Vietnam

During the last two decades, the number of manufacturers in the European Union (EU) that have outsourced (part of their) production to low-wage countries has increased enormously. At the same time there are also still plenty of firms that produce their products (almost) entirely in the EU. This paper studies the politics of global sourcing by investigating the political consequences of this division between, on the one hand, producers and EU Member States benefiting from increased imports from low wage countries and, on the other hand, firms and countries hurt by the inflow of cheap products made in China and elsewhere. It does so by using the EU bicycle sector and several recent EU anti-dumping proceedings against Chinese and Vietnamese bikes as a case study.