Chinese shoe-making industry opposes trade quotas
By Jiang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-05 08:54 But it would collect punitive duties of up to 23 per cent on leather shoes
from China and 29.5 per cent from Viet Nam when the annual quotas are used
up.
According to the Reuters report, this plan was included in an
analysis sent by the Commission to member state governments but has not yet been
put formally to EU member countries.
Both China's Ministry of Commerce
and the European Commission's delegation to Beijing said they had no information
on the plan.
Wei said the possible quota system was likely to be just one
of the proposals to settle dumping disputes and would have a negative impact on
China's shoe-making industry.
EU footwear retailers also complained that
introducing quotas on shoe imports would make shoes more expensive and create
uncertainty in the sector in Europe.
"This is bad news for consumers,"
said Alisdair Gray, a director of the British Retail Consortium.
"Quotas
will push up prices and introduce uncertainty into the supply chain."
The
European economic bloc had been worried that more footwear imports from China
would flood its markets and hurt the local shoe-making industry since early last
year.
The region set up an inspection regime last February. In July, it
made allegations that Chinese leather shoes were being dumped in Europe.
This came following complaints by EU shoe manufacturers, especially
those in Italy.
The EU is already phasing-in anti-dumping duties, up to
19.4 per cent by October, on Chinese leather shoes.
China exported 6.9
billion pairs of shoes to the European market last year.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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