The European Union adopted, by the narrowest of majorities, new anti-dumping
measures to tackle imports of leather shoes from China and Vietnam, a diplomatic
source said.
The vote to adopt the measures for two years resulted in a 13 to 12 majority
in the 25-nation EU, the source said.
The vote will allow the new anti-dumping measures to come into force on
October 7, with import duties of 16.5 percent on Chinese shoes with leather
uppers, in place of the current temporary duty of 19.4 percent.
The tariff on the same kind of shoes from Vietnam will be 10 percent in place
of the current temporary duty of 16.8 percent.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson described the measures as "appropriate
and proportional."
"Today's decision was necessary," Mandelson told a press conference, adding
that the Commission had an obligation to put proposals to member states when an
enquiry showed up "bad trade practices".
The move has become urgent as the temporary tariffs, applied in April as an
anti-dumping measure, run out at midnight on Thursday.
The main vote faultline runs 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.
The Commission had proposed a five-year penalty, but the compromise on the
measure's duration, proposed by France, allowed the vote to go through.
In the vote, taken during a meeting in Brussels of the Committee of the
Permanent Representatives of the 25 EU nations, nine countries voted in favour
of the two-year measures and 12 maintained their opposition.
The remaining four countries abstained on Wednesday but their votes counted
for the proposal as they did not oppose it.
"If the EU's Finnish presidency, which was has been hostile to anti-dumping
measures, had played its role better, the compromise could have been reached
much earlier," said an EU source.
The decision was bound to raise the hackles of EU distributors who have
denounced the sort of protectionism displayed by Italy, whose shoe industry has
not well adapted to the new world market.
The Federation of the European Sports Goods Industry (FESI) slammed the
"protectionist shoe duties."
Protectionist forces, which "only represent a minority among Europe's
footwear industry and governments" succeeded in pushing through the measures "at
the expense of European competitiveness and consumers," the group said.
Vietnam's Leather and Footwear Association, LEFASO, said it had not been
informed of the move.
However last month Hanoi vigorously protested against the European
Commission's stance on the issue.
The measures are now set to become official by being adopted at a meeting of
EU justice and interior ministers in Luxembourg on Thursday.
Brussels stressed that the tariffs will only apply to shoes with leather
uppers which account for around one in ten pairs sold in the European Union.
Last year China exported 1.2 billion pairs of shoes to EU countries, 145
million of which were hit by the provisional anti-dumping measures.
For Vietnam the total EU import figure was 265 million pairs, 80 million of
which were affected.
After a 15-month investigation, the commission found that shoemakers in China
and Vietnam unfairly benefited from state aid in the form of soft loans, tax
breaks and cheap rents.
China's footwear manufacturers reject the EU's
claims.
