Aokang wins six-year legal battle against EU tariffs

A lawyer for Zhejiang Aokang Shoes Co, the largest privately owned footwear manufacturer in China, said Monday the firm's victory in a law suit against EU anti-dumping measures offered encouragement for other domestic firms.

"It sets a positive example for domestic firms in their global trade and expansion," Pu Lingchen, who worked on Aokang's case against the EU, told the Global Times Monday.

Aokang received a written ruling Sunday from the European Court of Justice, which said the company would get over 5 million yuan ($801,600) in compensation for legal costs from the Council of the EU as a result of winning its appeal against an earlier General Court of the EU ruling.

In October 2006, the EU imposed a 16.5 percent anti-dumping tariff on leather shoes imported from China and then at the end of 2009 extended the tariff for 15 months.

The measure affected over 1,200 shoemakers in China and many footwear makers had to pull out of the EU market. Aokang and four other footwear makers, however, decided to take legal action.

We recommend:
A Decade of Fastest Development	Eastern Boom Lightens Western Gloom	Chinese firms 'potential Trojan horses'? slows
AVIC unveils new aircraft engines	China's MA700 to take flight in 2016	13th Int'l Automobile Industry Exhibition
China Int'l Industry Fair opens in Shanghai	Caofeidian coal wharf put into use	Galaxy Soho building in Beijing