China on Saturday welcomed a World Trade Organization (WTO) panel ruling that rejected anti-dumping measures imposed by the European Union (EU) on leather shoes imported from China.

Shen Danyang, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), said China urged the EU to respect the WTO panel's recommendations and remove as soon as possible the discriminatory measures and legislation inconsistent with the WTO rules.

"China looks forward to the EU treating Chinese exporting companies fairly and maintaining a normal Sino-EU trade relationship," he said.

The MOC spokesman's remarks came one day after a WTO panel largely backed China in a complaint about EU import tariffs on Chinese footwear.

In the ruling, the WTO panel told the EU to bring its method on calculating anti-dumping duties into conformity with WTO rules and said the EU anti-dumping moves had violated WTO law.

The WTO panel said the EU falsely applied WTO clauses concerning anti-dumping during its investigation of imported footwear from China and acted against WTO rules on transparency.

From 1995 to 2005, the EU controversially imposed a 10-year quota restriction on footwear imports from China and began implementing anti-dumping measures against footwear imports from China for two years from October 2006.

After the anti-dumping measures expired in October 2008, the EU started a review of the policies and extended such measures for another 15-month term beginning on December 22, 2009, despite China's objections.

China referred the dispute to the WTO on February 4 last year. Upon receiving China's complaint, the WTO established a team on May 18 last year to investigate the case.