BEIJING, Jan. 16 -- The European Union (EU) moved closer to imposing anti-dumping duties on shoe imports from China on Friday when member countries denied market economy status to Chinese footwear manufacturers.

    Just months after surging clothing shipments from China drove it to new import quotas, the EU Executive Commission is again trying to balance conflicting interests of producers and importers, who profit from cheap shoes, in the bloc.

    ¡°Member states met with the commission this morning and there was overwhelming support for the proposal of the commission not to grant market economy status to 13 Chinese companies,¡± European Commission spokesman Peter Power said.

    Granting market economy status to the companies in the investigation would have meant the commission believed it had a clear idea of their actual costs in making shoes.

    Without it, comparable costs in another country, in this case Brazil, are used to assess if exports have been dumped.

    Trade lawyers said costs were higher than in China, making it more likely Chinese exports will be deemed to be on sale at below domestic prices and liable for anti-dumping duties.

    Power emphasized that ¡°the determination of market economy status is only one element in any assessment of dumping¡± and several other stages of the investigation lay ahead.

    A Chinese official in Brussels slammed the decision. ¡°It is really shocking that not one of the Chinese companies was given market economy status,¡± the official said.

    A delegation from Beijing is in Brussels last week trying to dissuade the European Commission from applying anti-dumping duties.

    The EU executive must decide by early April whether to impose provisional antidumping duties and then by October whether to levy them definitively for a five-year period.

    It began investigating last year whether shoes made in China and Vietnam were being sold at below cost in Europe after EU member countries with shoe industries of their own, led by Italy, complained they were being unfairly hit.

    But Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, with big retail interests, have urged European Commission not to rush into duties.

    Vietnamese companies considered in the EU's shoe dumping probe have already been denied market status. Enditem

(Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)