Italy Presses EU To Extend Anti Dumping Shoes Lawsuit

The EU imposes an anti-dumping duty of 16.5% on leather shoes originating in China, which will expire on October 7. At present, the Italian shoe industry has submitted an application for end of period review to the European Commission, requesting to extend the anti-dumping duty on Chinese shoes. Guangdong shoe enterprises, which were most affected by the lawsuit, are preparing to respond to the lawsuit. Cheng Yongru, Director of the Second Export Division of the Bureau of Fair Trade of the Ministry of Commerce, said in an interview with China Business News yesterday that as China's largest export market, the importance of the EU is self-evident. In the past two years since the EU implemented anti-dumping duties, China's shoe industry has gone through a process of transformation, upgrading and restructuring. Against the backdrop of global inflation, financial turmoil and the setback of the Doha Round negotiations, the current situation is different from that two years ago, and both China and the EU should have a clear understanding of this. Facing the upcoming review, shoe enterprises should actively respond to the lawsuit on the one hand, and on the other hand, they should also improve their internal skills to enhance their competitiveness. Guo Weiwen, the secretary-general of the "EU Anti dumping Response Alliance for Chinese Shoes" and the spokesman of Guangdong Wanbang Shoes Co., Ltd., said in an interview with this newspaper that he was discussing with lawyers how to respond, and denied that Guangdong shoe enterprises' enthusiasm for responding to the lawsuit has weakened since two years ago. In the first half of this year, Guangdong exported 1.63 billion pairs of footwear products, down 15.8% compared with the same period last year (the same below), due to multiple factors such as the continuous appreciation of the RMB, rising labor costs and the global economic downturn. Guangdong footwear export enterprises also decreased significantly, with the number of enterprises with export performance dropping from 5811 in the same period last year to 3924 in the first half of this year, of which the number of footwear export enterprises in the Pearl River Delta dropped more significantly, from 5043 in the same period last year to 2617 in the first half of this year, a decrease of 2426, or 48.1%. Guo Weiwen said that the main problem of responding to the lawsuit now is that the review procedure is different from that of responding to the lawsuit two years ago. The enterprise is still unclear about how to do it, and is learning about the situation through government departments and relevant lawyers. In an interview with our reporter, Yu Shengxing, the Chinese lawyer acting in the EU anti-dumping case against Chinese shoes, said that at present, the trend of trade protectionism in the EU is becoming more and more obvious, and it is unlikely to terminate the anti-dumping duties on Chinese shoes. It is possible to extend the anti-dumping duties for two, three or five years. Under many uncertain factors, it is more necessary for Chinese shoe enterprises to argue with each other. Now it is very close to the expiration date of anti-dumping, so it is necessary for enterprises to prepare relevant materials in advance to respond to the lawsuit. Previously, the European Commission set the anti-dumping duty period as two years when it issued its final decision in October 2006, which was unprecedented, because Chinese shoe enterprises actively responded to the lawsuit. Previously, the anti-dumping duty period was generally five years. Chen Lipeng, Director of the Import and Export Fair Trade Bureau of Guangdong Provincial Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, said in an interview with our reporter that there would be a specific response plan. Relevant government departments and enterprises are very concerned about this anti-dumping lawsuit, and are currently paying attention to the latest information from the European Commission. In July 2005, the EU launched an anti-dumping investigation against Chinese leather shoes with a value of more than 700 million dollars. Guangdong was the hardest hit area in this anti-dumping lawsuit, and the amount involved by shoe enterprises in this area accounted for about half. With the assistance of Guangdong Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and other departments, Guangdong shoe enterprises established the "EU Anti dumping Response Alliance for Chinese Shoe Products" in 2006. On October 7, 2006, the European Commission finally determined that the dumping margin of Chinese leather shoes was 16.5%, and began to levy anti-dumping duties for two years.