The Commission has just over two months left to decide how to follow up on the anti-dumping charges it started levying on Chinese and Vietnamese shoes in April 2006 (see Euractiv 24 March 2006).
Trade officials had first floated the possibility of introducing a deferred duty system that would allow 80% of Chinese and Vietnamese shoes to enter the EU free of any anti-dumping duty, with shoes entering above that allowance being subject to higher tariffs (see Euractiv 5 July 2006).
This idea was rejected on 20 July 2006 by Member States, notably by shoe manufacturing countries such as Italy, Spain, France, Poland and Portugal.
According to the Financial Times, Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson is now suggesting a blanket tariff of 10% on imports from Vietnam and 16.5% on China.
The Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industries says the uncertainty is damaging business. “That the Commission put out a second very different proposal in the space of two weeks without even consulting the interested parties is very disconcerting,” it said.
Chinese companies claim they are merely benefiting from the abolition of quotas and are lobbying their government to take the EU to the WTO. China's Vice Minister of Commerce will visit Europe next month for high-level negotiations on this issue.
