Anti-dumping measures will stay
29/09/2008
European Union trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson, is preparing to announce a formal review of the anti-dumping measures in place for imports of leather shoes from China and Vietnam.
Under these circumstances, the measures will remain in place until the review is complete; this could take as much as 15 months.
They authorities in China and Vietnam, who have complained loudly about the tariffs imposed on leather shoes from manufacturers there who want to sell in the EU, are certain to react angrily to the news.
At a committee meeting on September 17 in Brussels, representatives of the 27 EU states voted by 15–12 not to renew the measures, which have been in place for two years but are due to expire on October 6. This decision represented no more than a recommendation, with the final decision being in the hands of the leaders of the EU’s executive, the 27 commissioners.
On September 29, Mr Mandelson told the Financial Times that he was going to propose a review, but that he would ask for the review to be completed in the shortest space of time possible. Twelve to 15 months is the normal length of time for such an exercise to last, but there were suggestions that Mr Mandelson’s office might seek to lift the tariffs (16.5% on Chinese imports and 10% on those from Vietnam) as early as spring 2009.
Mr Mandelson told the newspaper that EU law left him little alternative given evidence of harm from cheap imports. “My rule is that I always apply the rules,” he said. “European regulations mean there is no alternative if there is a request from European industry which is justified and backed up by evidence. If I try to invent flexibility to get around the rules, I will be pulled back.”
Associations of Italian and other European shoe manufacturers, which have argued for the continuation of the duties, said recently that lifting the anti-dumping measures would constitute “a legal and economic error”.
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