Brussels proposes new anti-dumping plan for shoes

The European Commission has come up with a new plan for anti-dumping measures on leather shoes from China and Vietnam after a previous proposal was thrown out by European Union countries.
The EU executive, trying to balance contrasting demands of member states, has proposed punitive duties of 10 and 16.5 percent for leather footwear from Vietnam and China respectively, sources familiar with the case told Reuters.
The duty plan replaces a Commission proposal for a system involving quotas for shoes entering the bloc at usual tariffs and higher duties for subsequent imports.
That plan was rejected last week by many EU member states and China said it was against World Trade Organisation rules.
Shoe-producing countries led by Italy believed it was too soft, while traditionally free-trading countries such as the Nordic states argued there was no need for measures at all.
"This is the most practical solution," said an official at the Commission, referring to the new proposal. The five-year duties are lower than preliminary tariffs introduced earlier this year of 16.8 and 19.4 percent for leather footwear from Vietnam and China respectively.
Those preliminary duties are due to expire in early October. Both China and Vietnam have denied their shoe exports are being dumped in the EU. Together last year they shipped a total of 1.5 billion pairs of all categories of shoes to the 25-nation EU, about 15 percent of which were affected by the preliminary anti-dumping duties.
Trade experts said Italy and other shoe-producing countries were likely to press for higher tariffs. "This looks like just the starting point for further discussion," said Alisdair Gray, a director of the British Retail Consortium which represents the retail sector in Britain.
The new proposal must be cleared by EU member states by September in order to come into force in October. Gray said the proposed duties "could have been worse" for retailers. Leading international shoe manufacturers, such as Timberland and Wolverine of the United States, want the Commission to consider another system under which duties would only be applied on shoes below a minimum price. Under the new Commission proposal, children's shoes will not be exempt from duties, as they are under the preliminary duties.
The Commission official said Brussels had evidence that shoes were being falsely declared as children's footwear in order to avoid the tariffs. The shoes row is another example of how the EU is divided the challenges of economic globalisation. Last year, textile producing countries and those with strong retail interests locked horns on how the EU should respond when quotas for Chinese clothing quotas filled up quickly.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson is set to review the bloc's anti-dumping rules, saying they should reflect the needs of retailers and companies which invest in factories in low-cost countries outside the EU, as well as local producers.