According to a recent press statement made by the Italian Footwear Manufacturers’ Association (ANCI), the industry is losing 80 companies a month and shoe exports are falling by three million pairs.

According to Rossano Soldini, president of ANCI, the industry "is being crushed by the burgeoning growth of imports from China and a murky commercial practices."

In the first eight months, imports increased overall by 13.5% in value and 0.9% in quantity, compared with the record-setting levels of last year (with a 12% rise in volume for leather shoes).

"The periodic monitoring," Soldini noted, "once again reports a significant increase in Chinese imports, both in quantity (+ 16.8%) and value (+ 69.9%), along with an increase in triangulation. Imports from Belgium rose by 17.8% in volume, making it our fourth largest supplier country, ahead of India, Bulgaria and Tunisia. This data may conceal irregular movements of product for the sole purpose of avoiding tighter customs controls; and this also confirms the need for precise rules on the origin of products."

The most troubling data registered by the ANCI Research Office concerns the impact on companies and employment. On the whole, in the leather chain, over 1,500 companies have closed since 2003, but the trend has continued to worsen in recent months. In the first nine months of 2005, 720 production units closed their doors, with the loss of 8,000 jobs.

Mr Soldini concluded, "We are now awaiting strong signals from the (European) Commission regarding the adoption of anti-dumping tariffs; after the official launch of anti-dumping proceedings on leather footwear against China and Vietnam last July, we are still awaiting the adoption of provisional tariffs to correct the competitive imbalance with respect to those two countries. The data provided by the European Commission itself on the ex-post monitoring of EU imports from China, since restrictions were lifted on 1 January 2005, speak for themselves: +525% in volume in the first 7 months of 2005 for the 32 customs items with leather uppers."