Tuesday October 13, 5:08 AM
Chinese shoe tariff extension proposed in EU
The European Commission has proposed to extend penalty taxes on Chinese and Vietnamese shoe imports by another 15 months, according to a commission document seen by AFP on Monday.
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 provisions had been set to expire at the end of the year but according to the document the European Commission will recommend that they are renewed.
"The anti-dumping measures on leather footwear should be maintained," the document says.
According to the commission, the EU's executive arm, the European footwear industry would suffer "in the short and medium term" if the tariffs were scrapped immediately.
"The duration of the measures should therefore be limited to 15 months," it said.
Yet the proposed extension still needs the approval of the EU's 27 member states before it can come into effect and the measures have regularly been a source of conflict between them.
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 fears that cheap Chinese imports could undermine EU producers.
Bigger manufacturers that make their shoes in Asia, such as Diesel, Adidas or Puma, are also fighting against the renewal of the shoe tariffs.
EU anti-dumping measures levy import duties of 16.5 percent on Chinese shoes with leather uppers and 10 percent on the same kind of shoes from Vietnam.
Figures from the European Commission show that Chinese and Vietnamese shoes make up 30 percent of the EU footwear market.
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