Friday October 9, 1:31 AM
Europe ready to prolong Chinese shoe-trade war: source
Penalty taxes on Chinese and Vietnamese shoe imports into Europe should be extended by another 15 months, EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton will urge member states, a source said Thursday.
Anti-dumping duties on footwear, essentially fines for exporting goods below production cost, were first applied in October 2006 and have so far cost manufacturers with operations in those countries hundreds of millions of euros.
The news came on the day Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping held talks with commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, at which the issue was to take prominence alongside funding the international effort to combat global warming.
EU-China trade has exploded in recent years, making the EU the top destination worldwide for exports of Chinese goods while China is Europe's biggest trade partner after the United States.
The EU anti-dumping measures involve import duties of 16.5 percent on Chinese shoes with leather uppers and 10 percent on the same kind of shoes from Vietnam.
Other Chinese export sectors, including steel cables, industrial chemicals and metal fasteners, have been similarly targeted.
The European Footwear Alliance, which includes global giants Adidas and Timberland among some 2,000 footwear members, says companies have shelled out more than 800 million euros (1.2 billion dollars) in these taxes.
"The EFA believes that the only legally justifiable and, indeed, sensible conclusion of the anti-dumping expiry review investigation is the complete termination of these duties," it said in a statement.
The measures have been a source of conflict between member states.
The main vote faultline has run between Europe's economically liberal north, hostile in principle to anti-dumping measures, and the more protectionist south, sympathetic to the views of EU producers.
Brussels decided a year ago to maintain the anti-dumping measures on Chinese shoes to give it time to re-evaluate the market situation.
Since the duties were imposed, the Chinese and Vietnamese share of the leather-soled shoe market has remained stable at around 30 percent, with European shoemakers holding between 40 and 45 percent.
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