The European Union has taken the first steps towards placing duties of up to 20% to 25% on Chinese and Vietnamese manufactured footwear because of allegations of dumping practices. The Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry has been working to remove many sporting goods products from these duties and has succeeded in creating the Special Technology Athletic Footwear exemption, which is included in the European Commission’s proposal. This exemption would allow most athletic footwear into the EU without additional duties, but it is still unclear whether this STAF exemption will include hiking footwear, sandals, and outdoor footwear.

“The exclusion of STAF from the product scope of the investigation is the obvious response to the lack of EU production of such shoes,” said FESI President Horst Widmann.
In an effort to avoid a fiasco similar to the apparel duties and the “bra wars” that occurred last year, the EC is ramping up these new footwear duties in phases, starting with a 4% surcharge that will go into effect on April 7. This duty will increase incrementally until it reaches 20% sometime in August. This is designed to allow manufacturers enough time to react to the new economic reality.

Other published reports suggest that China may become proactive with this issue and create its own footwear export tariff, or even place a quota on all footwear exports. Last year, the EU imported 120 million pairs of shoes from Vietnam and 95 million pairs from China.

Most manufacturers have voiced opposition to these duties, including adidas-Salomon AG, Puma AG, and Clarks Ltd. Another industry group including Timberland, Reebok, Kickers, Rockport, and Ellesse asked the EC to exempt shoes costing more than €50 a pair.

On the other side of the battle, the National Association of Italian Shoemakers is in favor of the duties, but is criticizing the EC for allowing a “major loophole” by not including all types of footwear in the proposal. They contend that this may “reduce the effectiveness” of the anti-dumping duties. FESI contends that its members’ suppliers do not sell below cost and do not receive state subsidies of any kind. This puts the EU measures, if adopted, at serious risk of a legal challenge at the WTO. The organization also says that the proposed duties would not ease the alleged difficulties of the Southern European shoe industry, but would give an unfair advantage to European-manufactured shoes over high-end imports from China and Vietnam.