How To Deal With The Rise Of Trade Protectionism In Jinjiang Shoe Enterprises

As one of the world's shoe production bases, Jinjiang has been exporting 400 million pairs of sports shoes annually and earning about 1 billion 300 million US dollars in recent years.

However, according to the Jinjiang inspection and Quarantine Bureau, the first negative growth of sports shoes exports in 2006 was due to the anti-dumping investigations carried out by the European Union and the United States on Jinjiang shoe enterprises in the main export areas.

As an important export market, the European Union and the United States account for 35% and 33% of the volume of footwear exports in Jinjiang respectively. The rise of trade protectionism in these two regions has affected the confidence of export enterprises, which is a major factor hindered the export of Jinjiang shoe enterprises.

As an export-oriented business gathering area, how should Jinjiang respond to this trend?

Zhang Yongning, propaganda minister of the Jinjiang Municipal Committee, believes that the government, enterprises and industry organizations should play their respective roles.

The practice of the Jinjiang municipal government is to guide enterprises to go out. For example, this year, government organizations such as Anta, XTEP and other brand enterprises jointly went to Philippines to create Jinjiang Industrial Park.

This pformation from product to enterprise is conducive to the improvement of the degree of internationalization of enterprises, while reducing dependence on the United States and other markets.

The Jinjiang sports shoes company's experience is also worth learning. Its chairman, Lin Shui pan, told reporters that the product will be processed locally in Russia and other European countries this year, making it made in China for Europe, creating employment opportunities for local people and avoiding harassment of anti dumping investigations.

Lin Shui Pan said that this model will be extended to more European countries in the future.

Xie Luwei, director of the Jinjiang Municipal Bureau of Commerce, said that enterprises should not evade or actively respond to anti-dumping investigations.

In the WTO framework, dumping is mainly based on malicious sales at below cost, while the low price sales of Jinjiang shoe enterprises are based on low cost and are not malicious sales.

However, many enterprises do not understand the rules of WTO and the procedure of litigation.

Xie Luwei suggested that Jinjiang shoe enterprises should strengthen the construction and coordination of trade organizations, and enterprises should form certain mechanisms on prices so as to avoid price reductions.

Of course, if Jinjiang shoe enterprises want to get rid of the anti dumping harassment completely, the most important thing is to work hard on the technological content and added value of the products, create brands and play scientific research cards.

Take XTEP as an example. In early 2006, it became the first batch of "national exemption export products" enterprises.

This year, XTEP's products exported to its own brand have successfully entered the 15 countries of the European Union. XTEP's brand advertisements are everywhere in the radio, newspapers, buses and trams in some Eastern European countries.

Like XTEP, Anta has put forward the internationalization strategy of "deep plowing China, layout Asia Pacific and looking global". By 2010, overseas sales will account for 10% of Anta's total sales.

These enterprises have brand names, research and innovation capabilities, and the price of products is higher than the prices of traditional shoes exported from Jinjiang. They will not be subject to anti-dumping investigations. At the same time, they will help improve the structure of Jinjiang's export products and demonstrate and promote the pformation of "Jinjiang manufacturing" into "Jinjiang creation".

Xie Luwei said that the anti dumping dilemma faced by Jinjiang shoe enterprises is actually a microcosm of China's current foreign trade situation.

To solve the current predicament, the Ministry of Commerce and other central functional departments need to provide more help to enterprises, such as the establishment of the national anti-dumping information platform and the anti-dumping early warning mechanism in various industries, and the dynamic information of anti-dumping in all major market entities are pmitted to enterprises through the Internet and TV platforms; the successful cases of responding to anti-dumping are provided, so that enterprises can understand the procedures for dealing with anti-dumping, enhance the confidence of enterprises in responding to lawsuits, intensify the organization and management of national trade associations, and coordinate and negotiate with the countries implementing anti-dumping investigations in the name of trade associations.