The European Union will begin a review of anti-dumping duties on China-made leather shoes, the European Commission has said. China's Commerce of Ministry said the "measures were not based on legal foundation or fact."
A review could take up to 12-15 months but the European Commission said
it will aim to complete it more quickly and reimburse tariffs if necessary, the UK's Guardian newspaper reports.
China's Commerce Ministry said it opposes the decision by the
Commission to review the 16.5 per cent anti-dumping duties for leather
shoes. "The measures were not based on legal foundation or fact. They
were even controversial within the EU," state media quotes the
Ministry. "Long protected by import quotas, the EU has already
completed its industry restructuring with the help of those anti-dumping measures," the Chinese government adds.
The 16.5 per cent duty aims to protect European shoemakers in Italy,
Spain and Portugal. Earlier this year, the EU extended the anti-dumping
measures to Macau, a special administrative region of China, after it
found that Chinese shoemakers assembled or shipped its goods to the former Portuguese colony before exporting them to the EU.