AEDT regrets the initiation of the expiry review prolonging anti-dumping duties on leather footwear from China and Vietnam, after the controversial two-year compromise made in 2006.
This case proves once again how the current EU anti-dumping procedures do not take into account retailers and traders’ need for predictability and legal certainty and how they are unbalanced to the advantage of some producers using this instrument for protectionist purposes.
In recent years, several EU footwear companies have successfully repositioned themselves and have adjusted to the reality of modern markets.
They, as well as the majority of the Member States, EU traders and retailers, and many footwear brands and suppliers, are against the prolongation of these measures. Consumers associations have also protested against the impact that these duties have on households.
The duties have not saved any job and after their prolongation production will not go back to Europe either. They just lead to import displacement to other low-cost countries.
The majority of the added value of the footwear produced in China or Vietnam by EU companies remains in Europe and is invested in design, research, services, marketing contributing to job creation in the competitive service sectors.
AEDT calls on the European Commission to complete the expiry review in the shortest possible delay and to stop imposing further import taxes on leather footwear that harm the large majority of EU companies and consumers. |