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The Chinese shoe-making industry strongly opposes any quota system for imports of Chinese leather shoes.

So said Wei Yafei, a spokesperson with the China Leather Association, over the European Union's (EU) potential proposal to re-introduce quotas for imported Chinese shoes.

An unnamed European Uninon diplomat has been quoted by Reuters as saying the European Commission proposed a quota-based system for leather shoes from China and Viet Nam to solve dumping disputes with the two countries.

"If such a plan is implemented, that would mean stepping backward to the era before 2005 when quotas on shoes were not removed," Wei said.

Under the European Commission's plan, importers could buy 140 million pairs of leather shoes each year from China and 95 million from Viet Nam at normal duty rates.

But it would collect punitive duties of up to 23 percent on leather shoes from China and 29.5 percent from Viet Nam when the annual quotas are used up.

According to the Reuters report, this plan was included in an analysis sent by the Commission to member state governments but has not yet been put formally to EU member countries.

Both China's Ministry of Commerce and the European Commission's delegation to Beijing said they had no information on the plan.

Wei said the possible quota system was likely to be just one of the proposals to settle dumping disputes and would have a negative impact on China's shoe-making industry.

EU footwear retailers also complained that introducing quotas on shoe imports would make shoes more expensive and create uncertainty in the sector in Europe.

"This is bad news for consumers," said Alisdair Gray, a director of the British Retail Consortium.

"Quotas will push up prices and introduce uncertainty into the supply chain."

The European economic bloc had been worried that more footwear imports from China would flood its markets and hurt the local shoe-making industry since early last year.

The region set up an inspection regime last February. In July, it made allegations that Chinese leather shoes were being dumped in Europe.

This came following complaints by EU shoe manufacturers, especially those in Italy.

The EU is already phasing-in anti-dumping duties, up to 19.4 percent by October, on Chinese leather shoes.

China exported 6.9 billion pairs of shoes to the European market last year.

(China Daily July 5, 2006)