Shenyang city, China’s largest export city in the northeast, has reported that footwear exports to the USA and the EU fell in the first seven months of 2005 (January to July); however, there was a marked increase in exports to Asian countries, especially Japan which imported $34.69 million worth of shoes from the Liaoning region.

In recent years the USA and EU have been the largest importers of shoes from the region but, due to an increase in commercial disputes between China and EU and US plus the current anti-dumpling investigations, Japan has become the major export market.

According to statistics, Liaoning exported 22.97 millions of pairs of footwear during the seven-month period worth $125 million, an 18.7% increase in terms of volume and 10.3% in terms of value. However, despite this increase, statistics show that the unit price of shoes decreased from $5.86 to $5.44 per pair, compared with the same period last year.