China strongly opposes to the launch of anti-dumping
investigation by the European Union to imported Chinese shoes,
which lacks practical and legal basis, Chong Quan, spokesman for
the Ministry of Commerce, said in Beijing Friday.
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"China also prompts the EU to make prudent decisions so as to avoid
from trade friction," Chong said.
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The delegation of the European Commission has recently reported to
the Chinese Ministry of Commerce that the EU plans to a launch a
probe into certain kinds of imported shoes from China at the end of
June, Chong said. The Chinese government is highly concerned with
it.
The Chinese side holds that the EU has removed the control on
the quotas for imported Chinese shoes on January 1 this year, but
only several months later the EU launches an anti-dumping
investigation into Chinese shoes based on inaccurate statistics,
intending to take a new round of restriction. This is against the
free trade principle, he added.
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Chong said China has also noticed that there exist serious errors
with the EU's data concerning six categories of imported Chinese
shoes from January to April this year, including leather shoes and
sleepers, and reality in actual trade was distorted, thus
misleading the public and the relevant business circles in the
EU.
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The quantities of imported Chinese shoes rose 581 percent and its
total value 433 percent from January to April, according to the EU
statistics, and the price of each unit lowered by 28 percent. The
relevant Chinese customs figures, nevertheless, showed that the
quantity, value and price for each unit of the above shoes was down
22.8 percent, 59.5 percent, and 30 percent respectively.
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China has lodged a representation with the EU on serious errors
related to the methods of sampling and statistics calculations, and
it asks the EU side to check the data accurately, and publicizes
the true situation with China's shoe exports.?
(Xinhua News Agency June 25, 2005)