The Ministry of Commerce backs efforts by Chinese shoemakers to
file a lawsuit in the European Court of Justice against the EU
decision to impose tariffs on Chinese shoe exports, a ministry
official said yesterday.
Director Wang Shouwen of the ministry's fair trade department
said that it was the enterprises' right to file the suit in order
to protect their legitimate interests.
The ministry itself, he said, was in talks with relevant
departments on whether to take the issue to the WTO.
On October 5, the EU announced its decision to reduce the normal
five-year anti-dumping term to two years and impose anti-dumping
duties of 16.5 percent on Chinese shoemakers.
The so-called "one-size-fits-all" anti-dumping tariff has
provoked complaints from both the Chinese government and the
country's shoe industry, who insist that the EU should take into
account the fact that some shoemakers produce low-end products
while others cater for the high-end market.
The decision contradicts the principle of free and fair trade
advocated by the WTO, the ministry said earlier this week.
Wang said that Chinese companies could learn two lessons from
the EU ruling. First, blind expansion of low value-added exports
would only damage the strength of the whole industry. Second,
companies must brace themselves for more anti-dumping
investigations, collaborate closely with the government,
intermediary organizations and overseas importers and learn to
defend themselves through legitimate means.
With its foreign trade reaching US$1.27 trillion in the first
three quarters of the year, China has become increasingly involved
in trade disputes.
Over the past six years, an annual average of 48 anti-dumping
investigations have been lodged against China. There were only six
such investigations during the 1980s and only two during the
1970s.
Wang said the situation is getting tougher as developing nations
start to take restrictive measures against Chinese exports. So far,
about 60 percent of anti-dumping investigation cases have been
lodged by developing nations like India, Brazil and Turkey.
(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2006)