Footwear duties will cost European industry more than 1 bn Euros

05 Nov '09

1 min read

The European Footwear Alliance (EFA) calls on EU Member States to put an end to unnecessary and harmful duties by voting down the European Commission's recommendation to extend anti-dumping duties on Chinese and Vietnamese footwear imports. In crafting its recommendation, the Commission completely ignored compelling evidence that an extension is legally indefensible and economically dangerous.

The Commission's recommendation comes less than 48 hours after EFA filed its 60-page response to the Commission's draft proposal; extensive filings by other interested parties were similarly made on Tuesday 3 November. In its haste to secure an extension of the duties, the Commission has ignored serious factual errors in its findings and abandoned any semblance of due process.

According to the Commission's own figures, European footwear companies are currently paying in excess of 16 million euros a month in anti-dumping duties. If the extension is approved, the total amount of duties paid by European businesses and consumers will add up to more than 1 billion euros.

The European footwear industry calls on EU Member States to put a stop to this disastrous initiative, which is the result of a deeply flawed and politically motivated process.

The Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry

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