EU Or Further Anti-Dumping Duties On Chinese Shoes

Yesterday, the Leather Association of China was informed that the EU anti-dumping verification on Chinese shoe enterprises began on the 9 day of this month.

The European Commission is responsible for the "sunset review" anti dumping investigation officials of leather shoes. The officials are divided into two groups, namely, Zhejiang AOKANG, Fujian Jian Yue and Guangdong Yuyuan industry, Panyu Chuangxin shoes, Huajian, Tong Jia shoes and 7 Sampling enterprises in Foshan Nanhai golden shoe.

After the end of the Spring Festival, the industry told reporters that the "sunset review" field inspection is of great importance. The European Commission will accordingly decide whether to continue anti-dumping duties on Chinese shoe enterprises.

At the beginning of October last year, the European Union decided to launch an anti-dumping review review of the leather shoes exported to the European Union in China. The review process lasted for 12 to 15 months, during which the current 16.5% anti-dumping duty will continue to be levied.

According to the EU review procedure, sunset review means no change of measures. The EU will only decide whether the anti-dumping duties of Chinese shoe enterprises are "maintained" or "cancelled".

Reporter learned that the on-site verification time is from the second week of January this year to the end of the Spring Festival.

In January 9th, the EU antidumping investigation officials first verified the Hongkong related company of Panyu Chuangxin, and from 12 to 13, the EU anti-dumping investigation officer imposed a two day field verification on AOKANG.

According to the time when the European Union announced part of the sampling site verification time, the South China Golden Shoe industry was investigated from January 19th to 21.

According to some sources, on-site verification mainly focused on the situation of the affiliated companies of the group company, the production capacity of each subsidiary, the products involved and the PCN (the classification of raw materials according to shoes) and the relevant documents and sales ledger for export.

"Site verification is based on the written reply data submitted by the 7 Chinese shoe companies sampled by the European Commission, and on-site checks are conducted to find out whether there are any errors and problems."

According to the legal counsel of the Chinese law consultant, Mr. Lai Song, the on-site verification will be directly related to how the European Commission determines the effectiveness of the implementation of the two-year anti-dumping measures, and whether there is any possibility of the continuation or renewal of dumping and damage.

There will be two hearings next month, according to relevant personnel of AOKANG group. AOKANG has not found any dumping problems in field verification.

Wei Yafei, director of the office of China Leather Association, even believes that on-site verification is good for us.

After seeing the scene investigation, he said that the attitude of several shoemaking enterprises to on-site verification could enable EU officials to see the positive image of Chinese enterprises being normalized, large-scale and international, helping to eliminate misunderstanding.

Reporters learned that after the end of the field inspection, the Guangdong alliance, the China Leather Industry Association, and the 7 enterprises sampled will hold second hearings at the end of February 2009.

At present, Pu Ling, a solicitor solicitor hired by shoe companies, is actively preparing for the second hearing with the Guangdong alliance and the China Leather Association. 7 representatives of the enterprises sampled will also take part in the hearing.

Jiang Pu stressed that the confidence of enterprises should be the most important in reviewing the EU's anti-dumping sunset.

In fact, the game between China's footwear industry and the European Union is embodied in 3 levels, namely, the game of technology level, political level and confidence.

Wei Wei Yifei believes that if the EU wants to abolish the anti-dumping duty on the whole industry completely, it will depend on the voting results of the members of the European Commission after the verification. In addition, the trade associations need to make a strong defense in the legal process.

Whether the EU can treat Chinese shoe companies fairly or not, "we still have a good grasp of winning the lawsuit."

In an interview with our reporter, Lan Qingxin, assistant dean of international economics and foreign affairs of the University of foreign trade and economics, said that if there were no problems in the field verification, and that the EU could be fair and impartial, the hope that Chinese shoe companies would win the lawsuit would be great.

However, Lan Qing Xin is pessimistic about whether the EU can treat Chinese shoe companies in a fair and impartial manner.

In the wake of the global financial crisis, the European Union's economy has begun to slide. Now the EU will encourage more intra EU product exports.

"This situation may become more intense in a short time".

"The EU should be aware that China's exports are increasing because of its high quality and low price, and the increase in exports to the EU is inevitable and inevitable."

Lan Qingxin told reporters that with the increase of the local unemployed population, China's low-priced products still have a large market inside the EU, and the trade protectionism within the EU should also be aware of this.

Lan Qing Xin said that the key to winning the battle lies in whether the EU can treat Chinese shoe companies fairly.

He predicts that if the EU's trade protectionism is strong, the EU may extend its investigation deadline with various excuses.

It should be 3 months to half a year, and the result may be extended to a year by the EU for some unexplained reasons.