World Trade Organization judges agreed to investigate whether European Union anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese shoes unfairly harm China's exporters.
China asked the WTO to rule after months of consultations with the EU failed to resolve the dispute. China lodged the complaint in February, two months after the EU said it would prolong levies on leather shoes from China and Vietnam for 15 months to help southern producers compete against lower-cost footwear imported by companies such as Nike Inc. and Adidas AG.
The EU slapped duties as high as 16.5% on 9.7 billion euros ($12 billion) of Chinese and Vietnamese leather shoes in 2006 to counter below-cost or 'dumped' imports. Four- fifths of the EU's leather shoes come from Italy, Portugal and Spain, where producers are trying to become more competitive, according to the 27-nation bloc.
The EU's anti-dumping law has a “every serious impairment on the interests of Chinese industries,” China's delegation to the Geneva-based WTO said in a statement. “It has negatively affected the jobs and livelihood of around 150,000 workers employed in the production of leather footwear.”
