On December 30, 2009, the European Commission reviewed the final ruling and decided to continue to levy anti-dumping duties on leather footwear imported from China and Vietnam, and continue to re-export from Macao (whether native to Macao or not) originating in China. The anti-dumping duty of 16.5% was imposed on the products involved and it was valid for 15 months. However, due to the fact that the province's shoe exports are mainly Japan, South Korea and Russia, they have avoided this shock.
European Union’s shoe tax is also annoying for Europeans
It is understood that in order to protect the interests of shoe-making enterprises in some southern European countries, the EU has imposed anti-dumping duties on leather shoes and children's shoes originating from China since October 2006, with a tax rate of 16.5%. On October 3, 2008, although the EU Anti-Dumping Advisory Committee voted against the 15:12 vote, the European Commission insisted on launching a review investigation. On November 19, 2009, this proposal was again rejected by the EU Anti-Dumping Advisory Committee with a 15:12 vote. However, in the end, the European Union decided to continue to impose anti-dumping duties on Chinese leather shoes under the insistence of Italy, Spain, some southern European countries and newly acceding countries.
This move has not only been opposed by China, but has also been opposed by local retailers, shoe manufacturers and consumers in Europe. According to the European Footwear Federation, which represents more than 2,000 European footwear companies, since the EU imposed anti-dumping duties on Chinese leather shoes in October 2006, the price of leather shoes on the EU market rose by an average of over 10%. While the anti-dumping measures for leather shoes in China and Vietnam will be extended until 2011, European consumers and businesses will lose hundreds of millions of euros.
Western shoe companies have little impact on injured Lu companies
A paper anti-dumping tax order has caused great impact on Chinese exports. According to statistics, Wenzhou, China's shoemaking center, exported 23.89 million pairs of EU leather shoes in 2006, and it suddenly dropped to 9.2 million pairs from January to September 2009. “Actually, the Western footwear industry represented by Italy, its main target market is obviously different from the target markets targeted by Asian regions such as China. The former is mainly targeted at medium and high-end markets, while the latter is mainly targeted at medium- and low-end markets. The end market is not directly competitive,†said Xu Yong, vice president of China Light Industry Federation.
“Fortunately, the impact on our business is not great. Our export focus is Japan, South Korea, the United States and Russia, and the export volume to the European Union is relatively small. The entire Shandong region is located near Japan, South Korea and Russia, and the export structure is almost recent. Compared with southern shoe companies, especially shoe manufacturers in Wenzhou and Guangdong, Korean and Russian companies have suffered minimal impact, said Yue Guowei, deputy general manager of Golden Monkey Group.
Gao Luguang, secretary general of the Shandong Leather Association, also stated that “Shandong’s export of leather shoes is not focused on the EU, and the impact is very small. For the EU’s exports, labor insurance shoes are more than leather shoes.†Gao Luguang revealed that due to Zhejiang businessmen doing business in Europe In many cases, the hardest hit by the EU's anti-dumping duties was Wenzhou.