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EU likely to impose tax on Chinese shoes
By Jiang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-18 07:01
"China's own brand footwear makers mainly focus on the leather shoe sector.
The proposal will hit such firms hard," the source said.
He explained that high-tech sports shoes and children's shoes produced in
China were largely labelled with foreign brand names.
The European Commission said it would continue its investigation to
"establish a consensus among member states on a definitive course of action when
the investigation is concluded in the autumn."
The EU dumping claim against Chinese and Vietnamese leather shoes was
initiated last July in parallel with a similar claim against work shoes.
The European Commission has for now decided not to adopt anti-dumping
measures against work shoe imports from China because no evidence was found that
such imports had hurt the European industry.
Mandelson's proposal has generated protests from China, Viet Nam and leading
shoe producing companies in Asia.
'Measures are better than nothing'
Italy, which has a large shoe industry of its own, has also protested about
the measures, saying they are not tough enough.
An EU diplomat said Italy was among the countries that abstained from
Thursday's vote after the commission declined to make significant changes to the
proposed duties.
"Italy thinks the measures are better than nothing but do not go far enough,"
the diplomat said.
The issue of competition from Asia has featured in campaigning for Italy's
general election next month, with the government blaming the country's stagnant
manufacturing sector and weak economic growth on what it says is unfair trade.
Scandinavian countries, traditionally the EU's biggest supporters of free
trade, have rejected the need for anti-dumping duties at all.
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