More than 150 Chinese shoemakers have formed an alliance against the European Union's (EU) anti-dumping duties and jointly raised 3 million yuan (375,000 U.S. dollars).

The European Commission (EC) announced last week that it would place anti-dumping duties on leather shoes from China and Vietnam, despite the fact that only three countries voted in favor of the tariffs, ten voted against and 11 abstained.

The duties on Chinese shoes will start at about 4 percent from April 7 and rise to 19.4 percent in the following six months.

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

Though the duties will be tentative, it is very possible that they may become five-year anti-dumping duties after six-month implementation, Wu Zhenchang, president of Panyu Chuangxin Shoes Group in south China's Guangdong Province, told Xinhua.

Wu said on the highly globalized international market today, the 19.4 percent anti-dumping duties will not only drag China's shoemakers down from their superior position amidst fierce competition but also make it hard for them to survive.

"The high duties will snatch the order forms of the European importers from China's shoemakers and thrust them into the hands of those in Thailand and Malaysia and in the long-term, Eastern European and Indian shoemakers will also become strong rivals," said the entrepreneur.

He said if the EU finally decided to impose the unreasonable duties, the European market will see a sharp decline of China's shoes, which may eventually quit the market.

Fighting for legal interests of their own, more than 150 shoe-making companies in China formed the alliance and selected 15 member companies to form an executive committee to carry out further steps against the anti-dumping move.

The alliance said it disagrees with the EC's decision to treat Chinese shoemakers as state-nurtured companies and not freely competing market players, and the conclusion that the EU's footwear industry has suffered losses due to imports of Chinese footwear.

The alliance also stressed that the EC has no grounds to attribute the predicament of some EU companies to the imports of Chinese shoes, and the proposed anti-dumping sanction lacks fairness and legitimacy.

The alliance also raised 3 million yuan (375,000 U.S. dollars) to implement the demur toward the EC, trying to persuade them that the shoes from China will not infringe upon the normal order of the European market.

Wu said the fund will be primarily used to hire the Chinese lawyers and European economic consultants, to make investigations and to search for evidence in favor of Chinese shoemakers.

"We will invite the most authoritative investigation organization in Europe to make the most concrete and in-depth analysis and to support our pleading," Wu said.

The spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce Chong Quan said no dumping activity existed in the exported products of China's shoemakers, nor have they brought crisis to Europe in a real sense.

Chong said the EU's punitive duties result from strong discrimination and are lawfully groundless, and infringe the basic principles of fair trade.

The EU members who charged China's shoemakers of dumping are all the southern countries like Italy and Spain where the shoe making industry is relatively developed, said the spokesman, adding that some shoe-making federations and consumers associations in EU's northern members also criticized the undeserved duties on China's shoes.

The shoes and hats foreign trade commerce chamber in east China's Fujian Province said a mutual benefit-based cooperation, instead of duties, should be the best way to solve the trade friction.

The organization said in the world's industrial shoe chain, the EU is superior in the design, technology, equipment and sales network, but China is good at processing and has a low-cost labor force.

Though there are competitions and frictions between the two sides, they must collaborate to create a situation which benefits both sides, said the association.

Source: Xinhua