Officials of the China Leather Industry Association (CLIA) said that the quality of Wenzhou shoes has improved greatly in recent months in an attempt to address the duties imposed by the EU. It added that a special national laboratory has also been set up to test the footwear for harmful chemicals before shoes are exported to EU. This came in response to a large number of shoes from Wenzhou having been rejected in the past due to an excessively high content of chemicals such as nickel and cadmium.