EU urged to reconsider proposed sanction on Chinese shoes imports

　China is urging the European Union to reconsider its proposed sanction on Chinese shoes imports, a senior commerce official said Thursday.

　　The EU's proposed plan to impose anti-dumping duty on imported Chinese shoes is unjust and lack of legitimacy, said Wang Shichun, director-general of the Commerce Ministry's bureau of fair trade for imports and exports, in a briefing for international media.

　　The Chinese side urged the EU to consider the reasonable requests of the accused enterprises, fully and reasonably reassess and judge this case so as to make a decision that conforms to WTO regulations, Wang said.

　　Wang noted that all the 13 enterprises sampled by the EU in this investigation are private or joint-venture companies, which fully meet the market economy standards of EU.

　　More than 130 Chinese shoes companies are involved in the case, but 90 percent of them are not covered by the sampling, Wang said, adding that it is unfair to deny their market economy status without checking or any explanation.

　　Wang said that it lacks legitimacy for EU to impose unified duties on all Chinese shoes, since the products involved in this case fall into 33 categories of different qualities and prices.

　　The decision to impose duties should not be made on the simple method of sampling but should be done following full investigation into each enterprise, Wang said.

　　He said that all the accused companies have handed in their questionnaire for market economy and asked for different treatments and yet none of them has received any reply from EU.

　　EU trade chief Peter Mandelson announced in late February a plan to impose anti-dumping duties on imported Chinese and Vietnamese shoes, saying the two nations were engaging in "uncompetitive behavior."