Ministry of Commerce expressed worry that the anti-dumpling duty imposed by EU on Chinese shoes represented a shortsightedness, which injures people without benefits to one. He said EU bent its knee to protectionism from a few members.
Starting from October 7, 2006, all the involved Chinese shoemakers would be imposed 16.5 percent anti-dumpling duty for their exported products, except one firm with 9.7 percent rate for having obtained market economy state.
It means in the next two years, shoe importers in EU markets have to pay 16.5 percent import duty on Chinese shoes. The price competitive of China s shoes in EU market would be greatly weakened.
According to the survey by EU shoe importers organization, the average price for one pair of Chinese shoes was 8 Euro (US $10).
The price rise in one pair would be over one Euro after the implementation of anti-dumpling duty. The annual shoe demand in EU market is about 2.5 billion pairs, currently Chinese products take about 35 percent of EU leather shoes market.
The anti-dumpling rule by EU will strongly impact the working opportunities of Chinese shoe workers. At present China has more than 4 million people in footwear industry and most of them are from countryside.
