BRUSSELS, March 22 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission will adopt provisional anti-dumping measures on Chinese and Vietnamese leather shoes on Thursday, the European Union (EU)'s executive arm said Wednesday.

    The commission said it would give EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson a mandate on Wednesday to adopt the measures -- which come into effect on April 7 -- on its behalf on Thursday. China and Vietnam have been strongly opposed to the action and urged the EU to reconsider.

    The punitive measures, which were scheduled to be endorsed by the commission on Wednesday, was delayed by one day due to a delay in producing translations of the regulation in all languages, the commission said.

    The delay does not affect the substance of the regulation in any way, nor does it change the date on which the measures will come into effect, which remains April 7 of this year, it said.

    According to Mandelson's proposal unveiled last month, the anti-dumping measures are to be phased in over six months, starting at 4 percent and rising to 19.4 percent for Chinese shoes and 16.8 percent for Vietnamese shoes.

    But children's shoes and high-tech sports shoes will be excluded from the tariffs.

    The EU claimed the trade penalties are necessary to curb inflow of cheap imports from the two countries, which Mandelson said are selling leather shoes in the EU at below-cost prices and violating world trade rules.

    China dismissed the allegations as "groundless" and said the proposed sanctions are unfair. It urged the EU last week to reconsider taking measures.

    The EU said imports of leather shoes from China soared by 1,000percent from 2001 to 2005 to 1.25 billion pairs, which accounted for half of the EU's shoe market. Vietnamese imports grew 95 percent from 2001 to 2005, it said.

    But as with the "bra wars", the latest trade row has threatened to split the EU internally. Some northern European states have been opposing the measures with the Swedish government attacking Brussels' policy as being "protectionist".

    The EU will review the tariffs by the end of the six-month provisional period and decide whether to keep the duties for the following five years. Enditem