The Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry is fighting anti-dumping measures under consideration by European trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson, which could severely limit footwear imports from China and Vietnam. FESI is making arguments similar to those made by OIA and SIA in the U.S. fight over textile imports from China. The Organization asked Commissioner Mandelson to consider the 640,000 jobs in the EU in design, marketing, sales, and logistics in the sporting goods market, all of which would be under threat from these measures. FESI also pointed out that hi-technology sports footwear has been exempted from all quota’s and trade measures implemented by the EU since 1994 for precisely the reason that there is no viable European manufacturing industry in this sector to protect.

“This investigation has been instigated by an overly wide-ranging complaint backed by a few countries that are seeking to distort trade in their favour,” said FESI Trade Committee Chairman Karl Sedlmeyer. “Footwear production in Asia has been a reality of the sporting shoes market for over a decade and protecting non-existent European industries will not change that.”