Anti-dumping duties on footwear should not be approved - GRTU
The European Commission’s proposal of further extending anti-dumping duties on footwear imports from China and Vietnam should not be approved, the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises,GRTU said.
In a letter to Foreign Minister Tonio Borg and Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, the GRTU said that in 2006, when there had been a discussion on whether Malta should vote in favour or against anti-dumping duties on footwear imports from China and Vietnam, it had made it clear that Malta should block this unjust European imposition.
The authorities had decided to ignore the GRTU’s advice and following lengthy political bargaining between member states, the EU imposed these duties for two years.
When they were set to come to an end last year, domestic producers requested an expiry review and this was currently under investigation. As a result the duties were still in place and could be extended if the EU gave in to protectionist pressures.
“GRTU today retains the same position held in 2006, we are not for protectionist measures, especially were Malta has only to lose.
“Anti-dumping rules impose duties on imported products deemed to be below cost price, thus making imports more expensive and driving up prices in our stores,” it said.
The chamber said that in the current crisis, citizens were right to expect the EU to terminate the measures. Malta was an importing country in the sector and retailers and consumers were being made to pay extra hefty costs to protect the few European producers.
GRTU said that last year, Malta imported €604,000 of footwear from China and Vietnam covered by the measures.
These imports accounted for around 80 percent of the volume of Malta’s footwear imports from outside the EU.
Overall, the value of Malta’s imports from non EU countries was virtually unchanged between 2005 and 2008 with the decline in imports from China being diverted to Indonesia and Brazil.
The GRTU said that Malta’s import bill increased by around €72,000 a year and costs to consumers far outweighed any benefit to domestic producers.
If extended for a further five years, the measures could cost the Maltese economy at least €390,000.
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M Attard
Oct 23rd 2009, 17:00
There are some very good quality goods coming out of China.In fact all the big exclusive clothing ,furniture and other goods get their stuff made there. So not everything that is made in China is inferior. There is also a lot of less well made stuff coming out of there and that is what gives China it's bad name.
What is annoying is all these shops in Malta buying inferior products and making the consumer pay way above the odds. They're the real criminals
J.Tonna
Oct 23rd 2009, 16:42
@ Dr. Etienne A. Calleja - there are ways and means to check if someting is made in China (or any other country).
Dr. Etienne A. Calleja
Oct 23rd 2009, 16:07
@J. Tonna.
and just because you're told it isn't doesn't mean that it isn't, don't you think?
J.Tonna
Oct 23rd 2009, 15:41
Chinese goods are cheaper not only because they have cheap labour but qlso because they use mediocre material. Lately I bought some Chinese tools (I did not know beforehand that they were Chinese) and on the first time I needed to use them I had to discard some parts of them. I have now decided that whatever I buy I ask if it is Chinese if the reply is in the affirmative I try to find something else even if more expensive.
Paul Barrett
Oct 23rd 2009, 14:36
If the shoe fits.
Personally, I am quite happy to pay Euro 5 or Euro 10 for a pair of shoes that last me a year but I am not happy paying Euro 105 or Euro 110 for a pair of shoes that may last a year and a day (if you are lucky) just because they have an EU label in them.
A. Muscat
Oct 23rd 2009, 14:13
Will the Chinese Dragon suzerain?
- Yearly, around 30 percent of shoes sold in the EU come from China and Vietnam. 145 million pairs of Chinese origin and 95 million pairs of Vietnamese origin.
- China - is the source of 85 percent of the toys on the European market.
Today, with the financial earthquakes predicting the worst yet to come, the G8 is already a term from the past, now we are talking about G 20. The future of the dollar at stake, the ball is no longer in Wall Street’s ground, probably is heading to Beijing in China, Brazil and India.
The wider picture is this: China with many other countries managed to keep Tony and George busy running after Osama on what’s called ‘war on terrorism’. The result of these useless wars can be read through the number of coffins returning back home while Osama is dwelling in some caves in Afghanistan with 24/7 protection by the CIA.
War must go on (apology to late Freddie Mercury). How many heads we lose per barrel was quite irrelevant according to George’s cataclysmic politics!
@ Steve Rogers
Blood
lgalea
Oct 23rd 2009, 12:40
Our shoes factories were closed down and now we are paying levies, customs duties and anti-dumping duties to protect foreign eu industries. This shows that the eu is nothing but a two-faced sham capitalist organization which preaches free trade but only if it does not bother its mainland industries.
Gabriel Zammit
Oct 23rd 2009, 11:34
I perfectly agree with the concept of imposing dumping fees on China made articles such as footwear and especially sofas and furniture. Before commenting, GRTU should get its facts right! European producers are not just competing with each other but must compete with cheaper than cost chinese products which in the case of sofas and furniture do not even pay any duty when entering the European market. These Chinese made articles are of low quality and thus, will increase dumping when compared to European made produsts. GRTU, please! your job should be to protect local trade!
J.Tonna
Oct 23rd 2009, 11:12
@ M.Vella et - The EU should ask these importers to give us a three year guarantee on goods bought from these countries. Otherwise we will go on being fooled that things are made in EU when they are not. Didn't everybody hear how many fake goods are made in these countries?
Steve Rogers
Oct 23rd 2009, 10:17
Honestly, what isn't made in China nowadays? This government is practically begging Asia to take our plastic, paper and metal wastes and paying them to take the wastes; the Asians use them as raw materials and send them back to us as goods (and we are charged duties on them!). Really good economics.
M Vella
Oct 23rd 2009, 09:44
I tell you where the customer always loses.When he buys shoes which look good,buys at a high price and then after two months the shoe begins to disintergrate,only then does he realise that the shoe was not made in the EU but brought in from third World Countries despite the label which states that it was made in EU.
Mr Farrugia,why haven't you yet retired?
Joe caruana
Oct 23rd 2009, 09:32
Good! We should be very happy because we eliminated levies. We said it was a thing of the past. The only difference apart from the fact that levies are now called anti-dumping duty, is that we are now collecting money for some-one else and to protect some-one else's goods.