BEIJING, Feb.5 -- China has warned the European Union it might report it to the World Trade Organisation if it applies anti-dumping duties to shoes made in China, a newspaper said on Saturday.

    The article in the Economic Observer -- written by an unnamed analyst at the commerce ministry's research arm -- said Vice Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng handed out the warning. It did not say when, but in January Gao led a delegation to Brussels.

    The visit was an attempt to dissuade the EU's executive Commission from imposing the anti-dumping duties. Gao also met representatives of Europe's retail sector, who could help Beijing in its fight against the controls.

    Some of the world's biggest sportswear companies, which produce many shoes in China, have said the import duties could threaten more than half a million European jobs in design, marketing, sales and logistics.

    The Commission last year began investigating 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.

    Brussels will decide on the anti-dumping move in April.

    The EU sought the restrictions after imports of Chinese-made leather and fabric shoes soared 700 percent in the first four months of 2005, while consumer prices fell by about a third according to EU figures.

    Chinese trade officials dispute those figures and claim the threatened anti-dumping duties fly in the face of WTO free trade rules.

    China and Vietnam each exported an estimated US$2 billion worth of shoes to the EU last year.

    (Source: China Daily/Reuters)