EU Commission wants to keep dumping penalties on Chinese, Vietnamese shoes

09:55' 13/10/2009 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge — The European Commission has proposed to extend penalty taxes on Chinese and Vietnamese shoe imports by another 15 months, according to Agence France Press.

The French newswire reported on 12 October that an internal EC document recommends renewal of anti-dumping duties, essentially fines for exporting goods below production cost, on footware from China and Vietnam.  The penalties were first applied in October 2006 and have so far cost manufacturers with operations in those countries hundreds of millions of euros.

The provisions were set to expire at the end of the year but according to the document the Commission will recommend that they are renewed, saying that the European footwear industry would suffer "in the short and medium term" if the tariffs were scrapped immediately.

The proposed 15 month 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, says AFP, 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.

EC data shows that Chinese and Vietnamese shoes make up 30 percent of the EU footwear market.

AFP/VietNamNet