Eu Members Reject Duties on China, Vietnam Shoes - Officials

BRUSSELS (AFP)--European union member states dealt a setback Wednesday to plans to extend antidumping duties on Chinese and Vietnamese-made leather shoes, an official and a diplomat said.

In a non-binding decision, member states rejected the proposal from the European Commission by 15 to 12, according to the diplomat.

The antidumping measures were introduced in 2006 to combat an influx of leather shoes into Europe from the two Asian countries that Brussels said unfairly benefited from state aid.

"We are going to have to digest the decision," a commission official said after the vote.

Consumer and some business organizations welcomed the rejection, saying it sent a strong signal that there was little support in Europe for renewing the duties.

"Now we expect a clear signal from the commission that the duties will expire, " said Xavier Durieu, secretary general of the Eurocommerce business and trade lobby.

"These duties have been in place already for too long. They did not help anybody," said Monique Goyens, director general of the BEUC consumers association. "Consumers, who currently already face huge price increases, namely in the food and energy sectors, have had to pay the bill for long enough."

The E.U. antidumping measures, which were originally imposed for two years, involve import duties of 16.5% on Chinese shoes with leather uppers and 10% on the same kind of shoes from Vietnam.

The measures have been a source of conflict between member states, with the main vote faultline running between Europe's economically liberal north, hostile in principle to antidumping measures, and the more protectionist south, sympathetic to the views of E.U. producers.

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BRUSSELS (AFP)--European union member states dealt a setback Wednesday to plans to extend antidumping duties on Chinese and Vietnamese-made leather shoes, an official and a diplomat said.

In a non-binding decision, member states rejected the proposal from the European Commission by 15 to 12, according to the diplomat.

The antidumping measures were introduced in 2006 to combat an influx of leather shoes into Europe from the two Asian countries that Brussels said unfairly benefited from state aid.

"We are going to have to digest the decision," a commission official said after the vote.

Consumer and some business organizations welcomed the rejection, saying it sent a strong signal that there was little support in Europe for renewing the duties.

"Now we expect a clear signal from the commission that the duties will expire, " said Xavier Durieu, secretary general of the Eurocommerce business and trade lobby.

"These duties have been in place already for too long. They did not help anybody," said Monique Goyens, director general of the BEUC consumers association. "Consumers, who currently already face huge price increases, namely in the food and energy sectors, have had to pay the bill for long enough."

The E.U. antidumping measures, which were originally imposed for two years, involve import duties of 16.5% on Chinese shoes with leather uppers and 10% on the same kind of shoes from Vietnam.

The measures have been a source of conflict between member states, with the main vote faultline running between Europe's economically liberal north, hostile in principle to antidumping measures, and the more protectionist south, sympathetic to the views of E.U. producers.

Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http:// www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=BB07S3gOH0a%2FA3rShDugPQ%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.