On 4 February 2010, the Government of China instructed its Permanent Mission to the WTO to send a letter to the Delegation of the EU to the WTO, making a consultation request under the WTO dispute settlement procedure concerning the anti-dumping measures taken by the EU against imports of certain footwear with uppers of leather originating from China.

From 1995 to 2005, the EU had imposed quota restrictions on imports of footwear from China for almost a decade. Despite of the commitment made by the EU to remove quota restrictions at the time of China’s accession to the WTO, in 2005 the EU initiated an anti-dumping investigation against imports of footwear with uppers of leather from China without objective and fair examination, and arbitrarily imposed measures for a period of two years in October 2006. In October 2008, despite of strong objections from China, the EU initiated an expiry review at the cost of numerous consumers’ interests, and on December 22, 2009 decided to extend the anti-dumping measures for another 15 months.

China believes that the anti-dumping investigations and the findings made by the EU violated various obligations under the WTO, and consequently caused damage to the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese exporters. The government of China had repeatedly consulted with the EU pertaining to its great concerns on both bilateral and multilateral occasions; furthermore China footwear industry had also strongly voiced against the decisions made by the EU. In spite of all the efforts made by China through dialogue mechanism with the EU, the concerns expressed by China had not been properly addressed or settled by the EU.

Therefore, China has no way but to request for consultations under the WTO dispute settlement procedure. It is hoped that the EU could take into account the serious concerns of China and the two sides could reach proper solutions as early as possible.

(All information published on this website is authentic in Chinese. English is provided for reference only.)