New shoe tariffs 'bad for Malta'
The Malta Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises - GRTU yesterday said it disagreed with the government's decision to abstain on the vote in the European Council on the imposition of 16.5 per cent and 10 per cent tariffs on shoes imported from China...
The Malta Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises - GRTU yesterday said it disagreed with the government's decision to abstain on the vote in the European Council on the imposition of 16.5 per cent and 10 per cent tariffs on shoes imported from China and Vietnam.
It said the government's abstention on this crucial vote was equivalent to a "yes" vote.
The GRTU maintained that the EU Commission's recommendations were bad for Malta, bad for Maltese business and bad for Maltese consumers.
"It is also bad on principle: Malta should not side with those forces in the EU which want to put the EU back to the dark years of protectionism.
"Anti-dumping rules as they now stand are anti-competitive," the GRTU said.
The tariffs were imposed after Europe was flooded with cheap shoes from those countries. In Malta, the importation of such shoes is said to be low.