The European Commission on Thursday adopted provisional anti-dumping duties on Chinese and Vietnamese leather shoes, despite disagreement over the move among the European Union's member states.

As provisional duties do not require formal approval by EU member states, the punitive measures can be implemented as early as next month.

The anti-dumping duties are to be phased in over six months, starting at 4.8 percent and rising to 19.4 percent for Chinese shoes, and from 4.2 percent to 16.8 percent for Vietnamese shoes, the commission's trade spokesman Peter Power told Xinhua.

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

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said on Thursday that the measures were targeted against what he called "unfair distortions of trade", and he expected the duties to "correct the injury caused to European leather shoe producers."

Mandelson said he was willing to work with the Vietnamese and Chinese governments to address the "question of competitive distortions raised by the commission's investigation."

Power told Xinhua that the EU had been in regular contact with the Chinese government over the shoe issue. He said trade relations with China were "extremely important" for the 25-nation bloc and Brussels hoped to solve the dispute through dialogue.

The EU claims that Chinese and Vietnamese producers are selling leather shoes in the EU at so-called "below-cost prices" and "violating world trade rules." It insists the trade penalties are necessary to curb inflow of these cheap imports.

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, which will be definitive.

Source: Xinhua