The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), in co-operation with the Austrian authorities, has uncovered a large-scale fraud in imports of textiles and shoes from China. Organised by a group of Chinese, Hungarian and Austrian citizens, large quantities of footwear and textiles are said to have been smuggled into the EU through small customs clearance agents by means of heavily undervalued and false invoices.

As a result, the EU has not only possibly lost millions of euros in import taxes and VAT, the smuggled products fall into the categories of Chinese goods liable to anti-dumping duties, including leather footwear. These duties were imposed in 2006 in an attempt to protect the European industry from being flooded with cheaper Asian products.

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