Macao Government Requests Legal Adviser To Solve Anti-Dumping Duties On Footwear Products

Since the EU imposed anti-dumping duties on footwear in the mainland and Vietnam, footwear exports to the EU in Macao have surged. EU Member States earlier voted to impose anti-dumping duties on leather shoes from Macao.

Since the vote was not final, the SAR government has hired a legal adviser to actively resolve the issue and explain the EU's concerns.

Shoemaker is deploying contingency measures. The EU may levy anti-dumping duties on footwear products in Macao, and run shoes factories that are already in trouble.

Since October 7, 2006, the EU has imposed a definite anti-dumping duty on leather shoes from the mainland and Vietnam for a period of 2 years, and the relevant measures will expire in October 7th this year.

Among them, mainland enterprises are required to pay 16.5% anti-dumping duty, except one.

Since the EU imposed anti-dumping duties on shoes from the mainland and Vietnam, the footwear exports from Macao to the EU have increased by 4 times, which has attracted the attention of the European Commission.

The European Commission believes that the production facilities in Macao are limited and it is suspected that footwear will be pferred from other parts of the region to the Macao area. Otherwise, such a huge increase will not be possible.

Therefore, the European Commission has launched an investigation on its own to circumvent anti-dumping measures.

The government of Macao has asked the legal adviser to solve the problem that the government has been explaining the concerns to the European Union since 2007 when the EU was concerned about the export of shoe factories in Macao, and hired legal advisers.

When the European Union visited factories in Macao, the Economic Bureau also actively explained to the EU that although the majority of EU member states were in favour of levying anti-dumping duties on leather shoes in Macao, the SAR government would continue its efforts until the final conclusion was reached.

On the other hand, the shoe factories in Macao questioned the rationale of the regulation.

Manufacturers insist that, in the light of EU's Taxation on footwear in the mainland and Vietnam, Macao region has increased its footwear exports to the EU.

But in fact, there are not many shoe exports in Macao, and long-term trade trends show that exports are decreasing.

Manufacturers emphasize that shoes exported from Macao now all come from the Macao area and conform to the rules of origin of Europe.

Footwear products have been investigated for the EU may impose anti-dumping duties on footwear products in Macao, and shoe factory representatives are on the sidelines.

Last month, manufacturers received notice from the chamber of commerce that the EU had the opportunity to levy anti-dumping duties on the Macao area.

In 2007, the European Union sent personnel to visit shoe factories in Macao and to produce wave shoes.

As a matter of fact, the European Union's investigation method is "meticulous". In April 2007, it was sent to Australia. In September, manufacturers were asked to fill in the production process, which was quite disturbing.

It is also necessary to report all the accounts of labor, rent and so on from 2004 to March 2007.

Even require suppliers to declare.

Another two weeks later, the European Union sent people to check factories.

Because the EU investigation is quite frustrating, the two or three factories prefer to give up.

Before the Spring Festival of 2008, the legal adviser hired by the SAR government visited the factory under the escort of the Economic Bureau, indicating that the consultant was assisting the manufacturers in dealing with the EU issue.

The manufacturer believes that the EU's investigation results have not yet been released, and that the anti-dumping duty has been issued, and the prospect is unclear.

Now we are looking forward to this. Because of the difficulty in operation, the factory is shrinking the local production line.