“This result”, continues Soldini, “is the fruit of efforts launched at the beginning of my chairmanship three years ago. We have worked hard to establish our right to compete on a level playing field against manufacturing systems that exploit various forms of dumping.
China clearly is using currency dumping, thanks to the devaluation of its currency; social dumping, through a lack of labour guarantees and its use of child labour; and environmental dumping because it can dispose of industrial waste without any concern for the environment. However, the size of volume growth and the average-price drop demonstrate that we are also dealing with a case of full-blown dumping.”
The political success is clear to see but the proposed duties system is not enough nor effective, in the footwear manufacturers' opinion, because the duties are not in proportion to the damage caused.
“To us it seems paradoxical”, ANCI's chairman explains, “that while the European Commission recognises in its procedures against China and Vietnam that evidence exists of State funding, dumping and the damage this has caused, this is not followed by effective action aimed at re-establishing a lawful scenario as has always been done for other sectors.
In particular we cannot be at all pleased about the exclusion of children's footwear and STAF because this means that about 42% of imported Chinese shoes will not be subject to the duty.”
The amount of antidumping duty proposed by Mandelson is confirmed: duties of between 5 percent and 20 percent phased in over six months are proposed for the footwear sector, whereas duties of between 50% and 100% were applied immediately when dealing with other sectors.
“We fully understand”, specifies Soldini, “that the proposal approved by the Antidumping Committee is to be considered a compromise vis-à-vis the interests of countries which no longer have a manufacturing industry but only large buying hubs. We have secured a further review and consequential adjustment of the duties next autumn at the end of the Commission's investigation into Chinese imports.”
Associazione Nazionale Calzaturifici Italiani
marketing@alchempro.com
