Brussels, 12/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The end of the “shoe wars” is nigh. European manufacturers are about to give up on their attempts to have customs duties on imports of leather shoes from China and Vietnam extended, and instead will demand that imports be monitored weekly.
The “shoe war”, which has seen European manufacturers in opposition to distributers and retailers, are due to end with the expiry in March of the customs duties which, since 2006, with an extension in 2009, have seen duties of 16.5% and 9.7% imposed on imports of leather shoes from China and Vietnam respectively. Under the banner of the European Confederation of the Footwear Industry (ECFI), EU manufacturers, largely based in Italy, are expected to abandon their efforts to have the taxes on their Asian competitors' shoes extended and will, instead, call for more stringent, weekly monitoring of imports. “We no longer have the support of EU governments and if we go on like this (asking for extensions) we will lose, for sure. So we have decided to have other guarantees,” ECFI Chairman Vito Artioli told Reuters, following a meeting with Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht on Monday 10 January. Artioli won a pledge from the commissioner that imports will be strictly monitored, to check that China and Vietnam are not illegally subsidising their manufacturers or breaking intellectual property rules - issues that could prompt fresh defensive measures against imports. The European Commission assured European manufacturers that it will support moves for a regulation requiring labelling on imported shoes. European shoemakers are also pressing China to open its market to top-of-the range European shoes.
In the European Parliament, Robert Sturdy (ECR, UK) immediately welcomed the announcement by European manufacturers, hailing “a victory for common sense”. “Consumers and retailers are having to pay more for their shoes because of these duties and, at the current time, that is simply morally wrong. Protectionist tariffs such as these have harmed retailers whilst doing next to nothing to save jobs in Southern Europe. Many manufacturers have taken advantage of global supply chains to outsource basic production which, in the long term, has led to higher-end jobs at home in design and finishing,” he argues in a press release.
The dispute, which saw manufacturers and retailers at daggers drawn in the EU in this case of Asian dumping, provoked impassioned debate in the Council between manufacturing member states from the South and free-trade supporting Northern states, outraged by an attempt by De Gucht's predecessor, Peter Mandelson, to revise EU trade defence instruments - reform which had to be abandoned in the face of the reservations of a majority of member states. The “shoe wars” also saw China lodge its first complaint with the WTO against the European anti-dumping taxes. (E.H./transl.rt)