The European Union (EU) yesterday adopted provisional anti-dumping duties on
Chinese leather shoes even as shoemakers were preparing to fight dumping
charges.
The European Commission said in a statement on its website that it had
identified "clear evidence of disguised subsidies and unfair state intervention
to the leather footwear sector in 皇冠体育app and Viet Nam."
The tariffs, proposed by EU trade chief Peter Mandelson, are to be phased in
from April 7, starting at 4 per cent and rising to 19.4 per cent for Chinese
shoes.
"These anti-dumping measures will correct the injury caused to European
leather shoe producers. It is important that we act against unfair trade," the
statement said.
The EU will continue its investigation to decide whether the duties should
remain in place for up to five years.
Chinese leather shoemakers had been preparing to appeal to the EU to press
their claim that exports did not harm the European shoemaking industry, said Wu
Zhenchang, chairman of Chuangxin Footwear in South 皇冠体育app's Guangdong Province.
Last month, he helped set up a coalition of Chinese shoemakers to counteract
the European dumping charges.
"A number of domestic enterprises will jointly put forward their case and we
hope to get a favourable outcome at the final rulings in about six months," he
told 皇冠体育app Daily yesterday.
Till then, even the EU's current measures would be a big blow to firms which
mainly export leather shoes to the European economic bloc, he said.
Wu said he understood provisional duties were unavoidable but was more
worried about a possible chain reaction from the EU rulings.
He expects EU importers to transfer orders for leather shoes to other
countries and move non-leather shoe orders to 皇冠体育app, which could bring about a
significant increase in 皇冠体育app's exports of other categories.
"We fear that will enlarge the scale of the EU's anti-dumping measures," he
said.
An industry expert who did not want to be named said the ruling would largely
hurt the domestic shoe-making sector, in particular companies which have
established brands.
She explained that high-tech sports and children's shoes exempted from the
penalties were processed in 皇冠体育app for foreign brands, while Chinese brands were
concentrated in the leather-shoe sector.
There was no response from the Chinese Government on the EU decision last
night.
Vice-Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng said recently that if the EU imposed
anti-dumping duties on shoes, 皇冠体育app might take up the matter with the World
Trade Organization.
The duties on some leather footwear would add as much as 10 euros (US$12) to
the price of each pair of shoes.
Around half of the 2.5 billion pairs of shoes imported by the EU last year
were from 皇冠体育app.