Standardization Of Shoemaking Becomes The Future Development Direction

Since the 80s of last century, China has developed rapidly to become the largest footwear producer and exporter in the world with the opportunity of international industrial pfer.

As the financial turmoil has spread to the real economy, the voice of China's footwear industry to increase export rebates is also increasing.

In order to boost the confidence of domestic shoemaking enterprises to "winter", the China Light Industry Crafts Import and Export Chamber of Commerce organized the "practical handbook for export footwear quality and safety" (hereinafter referred to as "manual"), which was jointly issued by the Ministry of Commerce, the State General Administration of quality supervision and quarantine and the China Light Industry Arts and crafts import and Export Chamber of Commerce recently.

Wang Ying, Secretary General of China Chamber of Commerce for import and export of light industrial arts and crafts, said in an interview with our reporter that the handbook aims at improving the overall quality level of China's footwear exports and helping enterprises to become familiar with the increasingly stringent quality safety and ecological environment standards of footwear products in developed countries and regions such as the United States and the European Union as soon as possible, so as to avoid incidents like Italy's malicious speculation of "toxic Chinese shoes".

At present, the footwear industry in China has basically set up a standard framework consisting of national standards, industry standards, local standards and enterprise standards.

As of September this year, there were 203 footwear standards in China, including 2 environmental protection standards, 13 basic standards, 65 standard methods, 123 product standards, 7 mandatory standards and 51 international standards.

The handbook believes that the future direction of footwear standardization in China is mainly concentrated on the following aspects: first, intensify the research of technical standards, speed up the pformation of scientific and technological achievements and standardization, and promote the coordinated development of R & D and standard formulation; two, strengthen international standardization; three, further improve the publicity of footwear standardization; four, strengthen the services for enterprises, encourage enterprises to actively participate in international standardization; five, actively carry out research on advanced foreign standards and foreign market access procedures, and calm down the ban on foreign market access procedures.

To deal with trade frictions, we should focus on fabrics, adhesives and soles, which are the main raw materials for footwear production. This makes the footwear industry closely related to leather, textiles and chemical industry.

However, these industries are the most stringent areas in the developed countries in terms of environmental protection standards, safety and ecological certification and corporate social responsibility review.

On the basis of summarizing relevant technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures in major markets such as the United States, the European Union and Japan, the handbook points out that in order to effectively cope with foreign technical barriers and guarantee the normal export of footwear products in China, the footwear industry in China must be familiar with the relevant regulations of WTO and form a mechanism for division of labor and coordination among various departments to deal with foreign technical barriers.

In this process, enterprises should constantly improve the quality management system as the main body to deal with, and actively develop new products that meet customer requirements according to the technical barriers of trade countries or regions, and adopt cleaner production processes at the same time.

Government departments should pay attention to the legislation and implementation of foreign technical regulations, and organize the evaluation of legislation on foreign technical regulations.

The business associations, testing institutions and research institutes should strengthen the research on foreign technical barriers, especially pay attention to the formulation and implementation of standards and conformity assessment procedures, and put forward methods and suggestions for improving production processes, product design, and replacement products.

At the same time, we should strengthen the work of risk warning and inform the enterprises in a timely manner.

The handbook reminds us that in dealing with trade frictions, the footwear industry in China should not only know ourselves, but also formulate effective plans in a timely manner, and comply with the provisions of the agreement on technical barriers to trade, and pay attention to establishing a national image.

To this end, domestic shoe enterprises should seriously study the technical barriers to foreign footwear measures, actively carry out social responsibility SA8000 certification, collect product quality certification documents.

At the same time, efforts should be made to strengthen trade disputes settlement mechanisms, negotiation strategies and related cases.

In addition to the use of WTO trade barriers to solve the dispute settlement, domestic footwear enterprises can also consult and lobby for important and sensitive commodities through the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and handicraft import and Export Chamber of Commerce, and communicate regularly with the same industry organizations in the main foreign markets.

Or contact with the Ministry of Commerce, the Chinese Embassy in Europe and the business consulate of the Chinese delegation to the European Union to mediate through negotiations with the government.

Related reports: the footwear industry will face a new shuffle. "Although the footwear industry in China has experienced unprecedented difficulties, it will be spring after the severe winter."

Wang Ying, Secretary General of China Light Industry Crafts Import and Export Chamber of Commerce, said.

With the global financial chain reaction and the possible impact and damage to the real economy, China's footwear industry will face the reshuffle and develop again.

As Wang Ying said, China's footwear industry has entered the real "cold winter" after more than 20 years of rapid development.

According to statistics from the footwear industry in Asia, nearly 1000 shoe factories and related enterprises in the surrounding areas of Guangdong, Dongguan and Huizhou have taken the initiative to close their businesses, close down, be sealed up by the courts or move to other areas.

According to a survey conducted by the Wenzhou Footwear Association on 371 shoe-making enterprises, since February this year, 32 enterprises have not started, 52 have shut down, and 14 have debts, accounting for 34.1% of the total number of enterprises surveyed.

It is understood that the survival of domestic shoe enterprises is very difficult, and it is generally hoped that the state can raise the export tax rebate by 2~4 percentage points, preferably to the original 17% level.

Lin Mingbiao, general manager of Zhejiang's Limited by Share Ltd, admitted that from the fourth quarter of this year to the first quarter of next year, the export orders and profits of enterprises will both drop.

As Long Guoqiang, deputy director of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Research of the State Council Development Research Center, said, "the crisis is just brewing vitality. The time of pformation and upgrading of China's footwear industry has arrived, enhancing the division of labor status in the international value chain, and passing from low value-added links to high value-added links has become a top priority.

Specifically, one is to extend the value chain, to develop upstream parts and components, and to form industrial cluster advantages; the two is to increase R & D efforts, develop from OEM to ODM, and obtain excess profits from technological innovation; three, extend service value chain, develop warehousing and logistics, and establish international sales channels.

In order to help Chinese shoemaking enterprises to get through the painful period of industrial adjustment, Wang Ying put forward three suggestions: first, continue to strengthen cooperation and exchanges between industries, promote the joint mechanism of Chinese footwear industry, and discuss the development plan of China's footwear industry; two, guide and organize more enterprises to actively participate in the respondent trade investigation, timely reflect the demands of the industry to the government, and strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the European footwear industry organizations to resolve conflicts as much as possible; three, promote the independent design and R & D of our footwear products, improve our innovation ability, and gradually form a number of influential independent brands.

Yang Jing: editor in charge