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Shoe makers in China raise war chest against EU

A 150-member group of Chinese shoemakers has raised a war chest of 3 million yuan (US$350,000) to fight new EU anti-dumping tariffs, a news report said yesterday.

The Chinese government has rejected the duties, imposed March 22 on shoes from China and Vietnam, as unjustified and a violation of free trade.

The newly formed Chinese trade group rejects accusations by the European Commission, the EU ruling body, that its members are dumping shoes in European markets, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The alliance "stressed that the EC has no grounds to attribute the predicament of some EU companies to the imports of Chinese shoes, and the proposed anti-dumping sanction lacks fairness and legitimacy," it said.

The EU duties start at 4 percent and are to rise to 19.4 percent over six months.

The shoemakers say they will use the fund to research the European market and hire lawyers to fight the new duties.

"We will invite the most authoritative investigation organization in Europe to make the most concrete and in-depth analysis and to support our pleading," Wu Zhenchang, president of Chinese shoe exporter Panyu Chuangxin Shoes Group, told Xinhua.

Wu expressed alarm that the duties could be imposed for up to five years. He said they will drive away China's customers, shifting business to competitors in Thailand, Malaysia, India and Eastern Europe.

Vietnam's government also has criticized the tariffs as unfair.

Half of the 2.5 billion pairs of shoes sold in the EU last year came from China.

According to an annual report issued on Friday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), China remains the country posing the most problems for the US in terms of trade and investment barriers. The report of more than 750 pages also cited Japan for continuing to ban US beef imports, and denounced countries in the EU for subsidizing Airbus commercial business.

The 2006 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE) documents foreign trade and investment barriers and US efforts to reduce and eliminate those barriers in 62 countries.

"Our job is to break down those barriers -- whether they are tariff or non-tariff barriers -- because it is essential to our continued economic growth and prosperity," USTR's general counsel Jim Mendenhall said in a statement.

The annual report said that China continues to flout international laws on trade by allowing the sale of a wide range of infringed goods, including films, music, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, automotive parts, clothing and footwear.
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