Two months after the end of an EU-China trade row on textiles, a new disagreement looms over shoes and cars, with European retailers lobbying Brussels to refrain from new protectionist measures against Beijing.
According to UK daily the Telegraph, a British group of retailers travelled to Brussels on Wednesday (9 November) to urge the European Commission not to impose additional "antidumping" tariffs on cheap Chinese shoe imports.
Brussels is currently investigating whether the Chinese are "dumping" shoes on the EU market, meaning selling them for less than production costs.
Imports of Chinese leather shoes have surged by 900 percent in the first five months of this year, according to estimates.
Trade commissioner Peter Mandelson has come under severe pressure from mainly Italian shoe producers to act against cheap competition from China, as well as from Vietnam.
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.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "UBM China (Shanghai)")
-Ltd..jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Thermore (Far East) Ltd.")
