Three European Union member states are joining forces to try to prevent Brussels from slapping anti-dumping tariffs on some Asian shoe exports ?mainly from China ?and avoid a rerun of the recent textiles dispute with Beijing.
The Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark are preparing a joint initiative, which they hope other members of the 25-nation EU will join, demanding an end to the anti-dumping procedure, according to Thomas ?tros, the Swedish trade minister.
The European Commission has been investigating Asian shoe exports and is considering punitive measures against Chinese leather and reinforced shoe exports that it believes are being sold under the cost of production. The measures would also have an impact on Vietnam in the case of leather shoes and India for reinforced shoes, used in the construction industry.
Mr ?tros told the FT: ? have now the same worry as when we [the EU] started the procedure on textiles The similarity with the textile issue is very clear and textiles proved really a debacle for the EU and for consumers. It is once again about using an old-fashioned protectionist policy.?
The joint initiative comes as the EU? anti-dumping committee yesterday reviewed the shoe dossier to decide whether to narrow the possible anti-dumping action and exclude most sports shoes. That discussion proved inconclusive, according to officials.
Sports shoe manufacturers have been incensed by the prospect of anti-dumping tariffs, pointing out that European companies such as Adidas and Puma transferred shoe production outside Europe more than two decades ago.
Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, was expected to announce the shoe anti-dumping tariffs this month. However, a decision is now not expected until early next year.
The shoe dispute follows a dispute this year between the EU and China over Chinese clothing exports, which also highlighted divisions among the 25 EU member states as well as a clash between European textile producers and retailers.
Although the trade instruments used by the EU to deal with textiles and shoes differ ?the EU used a World Trade Organisation safeguard clause for textiles rather than an anti-dumping case ?similar fault lines have emerged over shoes both at industry and member state level.
Part of the European shoe industry has long outsourced production to Asia while more traditional and upmarket European shoe makers claim their market share is being destroyed by excessively cheap Asian exports.
China is the world? largest exporter of footwear, with 4.3bn pairs of shoes exported in 2003. European footwear production fell 19 per cent between 1995 and 2003.
