China said it opposes anti-dumping investigations by the EU into increased Chinese shoe imports, accusing its trading partner of distorting trade figures and misleading the public.
"China urges the EU to start with the facts, make decisions cautiously and avoid trade frictions," Chong Quan (
China has started negotiations with European counterparts to address alleged "serious errors" in collecting and calculating trade statistics, Chong said. Imports of some types of shoes from China surged 581 percent in the first four months of this year, according to EU statistics, 25 times the 22.8 percent increase recorded by China's customs, the Ministry of Commerce statement said.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson on June 15 said he supports a probe into Chinese exports of safety shoes after a European shoemakers' group complained some footwear is being sold for less than the cost of production.
The number of jobs in the EU footwear industry dropped to 290,129 last year from 405,270 in 1998, according to the Confederation of the European Footwear Industry, which said that the job markets in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Poland and France were among the hardest hit.
The number of people working in the industry in Europe is expected to fall by about half in the next two years, the group said.
Mandelson on June 10 agreed with Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai (薄熙來) to limits on growth of 10 categories of textiles under a special clothing-only World Trade Organization rule.
The EU may also apply similar limits to certain categories of shoes, notably those made from leather, which were subject to quotas until the beginning of this year.
China and the EU may be able to resolve the shoe dispute because China, which makes three out of every four pairs of shoes in the world, wants its manufacturers to make higher-value products, Cao Heping (曹和平), vice dean of the Peking University School of Economics, in a telephone interview from Kunming, Yunnan.
"Chinese companies' share in the global market is so high because of their low prices. If we reduce some of our market share and yet control the supply channels, it will benefit China," Cao said.
Shoes were not subjected to the textile trade quotas that were lifted on Jan. 1 so "it's impossible for EU imports to increase more than 500 percent," Cao said.
RSS