Court rejects appeals against shoe tariffs
An EU court has backed the bloc's decision to impose tariffs on shoes from China and Vietnam following a series of complaints from Chinese shoe producers.
The EU General Court, formerly known as the Court of First Instance, ruled against the producers on Thursday (4 March) after they requested an annulment of the 2006 tariff regulation.
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The challenges were made on the grounds that European Commission analysis of the costs of Chinese and Vietnamese imports for EU manufacturers was inaccurate.
The European duties add between 9.7 percent and 16.5 percent to the import price of Chinese shoes and 10 percent to Vietnamese shoes.
On 22 December, EU countries voted to extend the 2006 anti-dumping duties on the leather footwear imports for a further 15 months as of January 2010, evoking strong criticism from China.
Beijing filed a complaint with the World Trade Organisation last month, accusing the EU duties of being illegal, giving the two sides 60 days to reach an agreement before the WTO complaints body will rule on the case.
Speaking from Hanoi earlier this week, European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said the commission had a "very solid case" in its imposition of anti-dumping measures. Mr De Gucht was in Vietnam to launch talks for a free trade agreement between the EU and the Asian country.
The companies that challenged the shoe duties were Brosmann Footwear, Zhejiang Aokang Shoes, Wenzhou Taima Shoes, Sun Sang Kong Yuen Shoes Factory and Foshan City Nanhai Golden Step Industrial.
Ruling against the companies, the court's statement said: "The anti-dumping measure ...thus remains in force."
The complainants were ordered to pay their own costs and those of the EU in defending the cases.