The European Union is preparing new anti-dumping tariffs on China’s leather and reinforced shoes in a bid to control the country’s booming exports. Following an investigation that found Chinese exporters were dumping footwear — selling it below production cost — EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson will unveil the punitive measures in the coming month, the Financial Times said last week quoting a senior EU official.

The move is also expected to impact industies in Vietnam in the case of leather shoes and India for its reinforced footwear, which are used mainly in the construction industry.
After inspectors toured Asian factories and European distribution outlets, there was “quite compelling evidence of dumping”, the official in Brussels said.

A preliminary discussion about the shoe tariffs among representatives from the 25 EU member states is scheduled for today, the newspaper said. While not directly linked to the recent spat over booming imports of cheap textiles from China, it is also aimed at protecting European producers by invoking World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

The measures follow a complaint from European shoe manufactures lodged on May 17. The Italian Footwear Association says imports of leather shoes from China rose 900 percent in the first five months of this year, the newspaper said. EU statistics showed an increase on average of 700 percent in import volumes and a 28 percent drop in prices for six categories of leather and fabric shoes. China is the worlds largest exporter of footwear and Asia already accounts for about three-quarters of worldwide production. European production fell 19 percent between 1995 and 2003.

Source: EU Business